The pink-ball Test has, at times, been presented as an oasis in the desert of Ashes desolation for England.
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Where the rest are played on flat tracks in arid stadia, the day/nighters level the playing field, so the theory goes. It supposedly swings more, bringing England’s armada of right-arm fast-mediums into the game, and allowing England’s batters to show off those county-honed techniques. The day/nighter in 2017/18 was the closest England came to a win on that tour, with defeat by 120 runs not reflecting the tension on the fourth evening. With Josh Hazlewood injured and James Anderson and Stuart Broad rested, perhaps the Adelaide Test offers an opportunity for England this time around.
However, there’s reason to believe it won’t all be pretty in pink for England. Australia are hugely adept at playing under lights, while England’s latest efforts against the rose-coloured orb have left them flushed with embarrassment.
Let’s start with Australia, the early kings of the pink-ball era. The Aussies have played eight day/nighters – twice as many as the next most by a team – and have won all eight. While a couple of those have been close, with the first a three-wicket win over New Zealand and a 39-run win over Pakistan also in there, there have also been a good deal of thumpings, including two innings wins, two by at least seven wickets, one by 120 runs, and one by 296 runs.
Onto the bowlers, the architect of Australia’s pink-ball success. In Mitchell Starc, a lethal swinger of any colour of cricket ball, they have the leading day/night Test wicket-taker of all time, with 46 scalps to his name. Pat Cummins, if anything, is even more formidable. He has 26 pink-ball wickets at 16.23. Only two seamers with more than 10 wickets have a better average – Trent Boult and Umesh Yadav. Josh Hazlewood’s absence has been presented as a boon for England, but he actually has the highest average of any of the three seamers.
Australia’s irresistible bowling attack will come up against an England batting line-up prone to folding in general, but especially when the lights go on. England have played three overseas day/nighters, and got off to an iffy start, dismissed for 227 and 233 against Australia. That represents riches compared to what’s come since however, with three of their last four innings seeing them bowled out for 112, with skittlings for 58 by New Zealand and 81 by India in that infamous two-dayer.
According to analysis by CricViz, the pink ball swings more than the red Kookaburra at first before moving much less through the air as the lacquer wears off, but it seams almost as much as the red Dukes ball used in England. England’s quicks are more capable swingers, but Australia’s are excellent at extracting seam.
However, there is still an element of hope for England, which comes from the chaos that is present in any day/night encounter. While conditions might not explicitly favour England, a shoot-out might. Overall, the batting average in day/night Tests is nearly five runs lower than for day Tests played since the start of 2015, the first year in which a pink-ball Test was hosted – 25.02 compared to 29.75. England might well need to run through Australia to get a win in this series. This presents their best chance of doing so.
Still, given the chasm between the sides present in the first game, the thing that England most need to do is to bat quite a bit better. Otherwise, Australia will fancy bowling them out with a beach ball, let alone a pink one.
