27th November 2015 was the day the international cricket first witnessed the pink ball as it was the first ever day/night test match played at one of my favorite cricket grounds; the Adelaide Oval between Australia and New Zealand. Day/night test cricket was introduced for two reasons; firstly in order to increase the popularity of test cricket and secondly in order to make up for the time lag between the various cricket playing nations. For instance, Australia and New Zealand are ahead in time compared to the other nations and therefore if they play a day/night test with any of those nations, the viewers of those nations (India, South Africa, Sri Lanka, etc) could view the maximum part of the test match. The success of the first ever day/night test helped to spread the concept across the globe.
The day/night test is also called as “Pink Ball Test” as in the d/n test matches a pink ball is used instead of the traditional red ball. This is because the red ball under the floodlights takes a brownish color which makes it very similar to the color of the pitch in those conditions. The pink ball on the other hand gives a better visibility to the players and also deteriorates slower than the red ball which makes a pink ball better than the red ball to use in d/n test matches. Before the pink ball, tests were conducted on the orange ball, which was initially planned to be used in d/n test matches but the orange ball failed due to visibility issues and thus pink ball was finally decided to be used.
Test cricket has witnessed 11 (completed) pink ball tests with India currently playing their first ever pink ball test against Bangladesh, who are also playing their first pink ball test. Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are the only three full time members who are yet to host the pink ball test on their home turf.
From the pink ball tests played so far it has been witnessed that majority of them have been low scoring games clearly showing that it is not easy for the batting side when it comes to the pink ball and further tests the patience and temperament of the batsmen. Only time can say how successful or unsuccessful will the future of the pink ball test be under the era of modern day cricket.
Jai Kishan's blog 