India will take on Australia in their first-ever overseas Pink Ball Test in Adelaide on December 17. In the build-up to that Test, the Indian cricket team are playing a three-day Pink Ball practice game against Australia A at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Friday. However, there were some major surprises in the Indian cricket team as Virat Kohli and KL Rahul, along with Cheteshwar Pujara were benched for this game. This comes as a major surprise as the Indian cricket team in the past have cited lack of preparation for the Pink Ball Test as the major reason for not playing the Day-Night Test. In 2018, India did not play the Pink Ball Test in Adelaide and in the normal Test, they came out victors by 31 runs.

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India won the toss and chose to bat against Australia A but they started off on a disastrous note with Mayank Agarwal falling cheaply to Sean Abbott. Prithvi Shaw, who failed in both the innings of India’s first warm-up game at the Drummoyne Oval, blasted a quick 40 off 29 balls and shared a partnership of 63 with Shubman Gill. However, Shaw fell to Will Sutherland but Shubman Gill, who also failed in Drummoyne, continued to bat confidently and was on 40 off 36 balls.

Lack of preparation?

In the past, the Indian cricket team had stated that they wanted a feel of the Pink Ball before playing the Pink Ball Test. India was the last nation to play the Pink Ball Test when they hosted Bangladesh at the Eden Gardens in 2019 and Virat Kohli hit a century to give India a fine win.

However, earlier in the year, Virat Kohli had revealed the reason for not playing the Pink Ball Test in 2018 in Australia. “Obviously, we wanted to get a feel of pink-ball cricket. Eventually, it had to happen. But you can't just bring those things up before a big tour and suddenly in the schedule, there is a pink ball Test, when we have not even practised with pink ball. We have not played any first-class game with the pink ball. You can't just go in two days before and say you're playing a pink-ball Test in a week's time. We didn't really think it was logical from that point of view. It needed a bit of preparation. Once you get used to playing it there's no problem playing at all. You can plan in advance. We just thought it was a spontaneous,” Kohli had said at that time.

After resistance for many years from the BCCI regarding the Pink Ball Test, it was current president Sourav Ganguly who nailed the point that Day Night Tests are the way forward but he said it with an air of caution. “Every country has to play day-night Tests. India has reservations but it’s a long-term future for Test cricket,” Ganguly said.