'Not in a hurry to implement pink ball' - Thakur
BCCI President Anurag Thakur says he would prefer to wait and gather more information about the pink ball before India commits to playing a day-night Test
BCCI president Anurag Thakur has said the pink ball, which was introduced to Indian first-class cricket in the Duleep Trophy, would be used in the Ranji Trophy as well. However, he added the board would not rush into a pink-ball Test without examining feedback from different stakeholders.
"We will experiment in the next few rounds of the domestic matches as well," Thakur said. "We are not in a hurry to implement the pink ball. If the experiment is successful, then yes, we can look into it."
The 83rd edition of the Ranji Trophy is set to begin on October 6 - a month after the Duleep final, in which many of India's first-choice Test players were participating. Cheteshwar Pujara, Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja were part of India Blue and Shikhar Dhawan, Amit Mishra and Stuart Binny were in the India Red XI. Thakur was looking forward to their opinions before committing one way or another with the pink ball.
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"This game, many players who play in the Test matches and the ODIs are participating. I will wait for the full report after the completion of the Duleep Trophy and we need to look at the various areas we need to improve before taking a final call if BCCI has to play day-night Test match in the future - what are the pros and cons of playing with the pink ball."
While most of the players have given the pink ball a thumbs-up, Gautam Gambhir, who was captaining India Blue, has been a prominent voice of dissent, calling for the traditional format of Test cricket to not be tampered with.