Two Day Night Tests For India During 2021 Tour Down Under? Cricket Australia Unveils Plans

After years of resistance, India finally entered the Day-Night Test club when they played Bangladesh at the Eden Gardens in Novemnber. India won the match in two and a half days and the stadium was filled to capacity for all the days as Virat Kohli and Ishant Sharma put on a masterclass of batting and bowling respectively to win the match by a massive margin. Now, there are plans by Cricket Australia to pursuade India to play two Day Night Tests in their tour Down Under in 2021. A Cricket Australia delegation, led by its Chairman Earl Eddings, will meet BCCI top brass during the three-match ODI series in India starting January 14 next year.

According to a report in 'ESPNCricinfo', Cricket Australia feels encouraged about the proposal after India won the Pink Ball Test. A CA delegation, led by its Chairman Earl Eddings, will meet BCCI top brass during the three-match ODI series in India starting January 14 next year. "As you build that trust and build that relationship you have that chat. Pleasingly they've played their first day-night Test and won easily. Now they've got through that it might give them the right build-up to it over here. I've got no doubt they'll consider playing one and maybe even more day-night Test matches. But that's down the track to when we catch up with them in January," Eddings told the website.

CA Chief Executive Kevin Roberts, while talking to ABC Radio recently, also spoke about having more than one Day/Night Tests during what is meant to be a four-match Test series. "...in my heart I'd say four from four, in my head we'd love to play one of the four as a day-night Test, he said. Eddings said CA also wants the BCCI to consider adding one more Test to the traditional four-match series that the two countries play. "Ideally we want to be playing five Tests against India, hopefully in the future we can do that as well," he said.

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Australia and New Zealand were the first nations to play the Pink Ball Test in 2015 at the Adelaide Oval and the match was a massive success when it came to stadium attendances and television viewing. Since then, there have been 15 Pink Ball Tests and all of them have produced results. Cricket Australia had requested India to play the Pink Ball Test in Adelaide in their tour in 2018/19 but India cited lack of match preparation and the match was played in the traditional Test. Australia have hosted Pink Ball Tests in Adelaide and Brisbane, with the upcoming series against New Zealand also having a Pink Ball Test at the New Perth stadium in December.

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