Kolkata: Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli wants practice games ahead of Day/Night Test matches abroad, suggesting that could be a condition if India is to play in Australia next year.
Kohli-led India refused to play a Day-Night Test in Adelaide against Australia in 2018. But since Sourav Ganguly became the president of the BCCI and pushed the issue, he said it took him three seconds to agree to it.
A pink ball Test is finally taking place at Eden Gardens beginning Friday against Bangladesh, and Kohli was asked on the eve whether they would be interested in playing under lights Down Under as well.
“If it’s the first Test, then obviously before the first Test whatever the practice game you play. One can be a normal red ball practice game and one before the Test a pink ball game but if it’s the second or the third Test, I would ideally want a bigger break between the Tests and have a practice game (with the pink ball) before the pink ball Test under lights,” Kohli said.
On the logistical differences that one has to encounter while playing a pink ball Test in India as compared to Australia and England where five-day cricket is played in summer as compared to winter here, Kohli pointed out that dew is the only big difference.
“I think in India we have one big factor which is dew, which is something we’ll have to (see). We spoke to the match referee yesterday, something we’ll have to speak about and discuss as we go along with playing the game.”
“You can’t really predict how much mopping or cleaning of the dew is required at what stage, you never know when the dew is going to arrive. He (match referee) had the same discussion yesterday that we’ll have to play it as it comes and manage it in the best way possible.”
“That is one difference in playing day-night test in India compared to any other country. Apart from that I don’t really feel there is any major difference, just the dew is something which is definitely going to be a factor in India in the late last session.”
“These are the few changes I presume but again they could be totally inaccurate until you go out and experience that. From the outside, it looks like these are the few things that might be different,” Kohli said.
India, meanwhile, practised for close to two hours in the daytime with the focus being on fielding drills.
On Wednesday, Kohli batted throughout the twilight period and faced a lot of deliveries from Mohammed Shami as Team India trained under lights for a couple of hours.
All the talk has been around getting used to the “twilight zone” which cricketers who have played with the pink ball, have acknowledged to be challenging.