Published: Sep 09, 2016, 11:20 AM (IST)
Edited: Sep 09, 2016, 12:21 PM (IST)
Weighing on the debate over the performance of pink ball under lights, Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir has categorically insisted that the experimental ball behaves in “exactly the same way” as the traditional red ball.The Gambhir lead India Blue team will take on Yuvraj Singh’s India Red in the Duleep Trophy final in Greater Noida starting from Saturday. The domestic championship was revamped this season with an intention to elicit the players’ to playing the four-day match under lights as well as to attract more crowds to dwindling Test format.
“We have to be clear, it is only the colour of the ball that has changed, nothing else has changed,” Gambhir told cricinfo.com from Delhi. “It is a Kookaburra ball that behaves exactly the same way as a red ball or a white ball. People make so much fuss about the pink ball that it swings more or dips more, you can’t pick the wristspinners and so on.”
“I believe the more you think about it, the more complicated you make the game. It is far more visible in the day time as compared to the red ball because it is far more brighter. In the last two games that I have played, I have seen nothing different. The red ball and pink ball behave exactly in the same way.”
“I am a traditionalist, I have always believed it is meant to be played during the day, that is my personal observation,” he said. “You can change the 50 over to T20 format, but Test cricket should remain the way it has been because you can’t lose the charm. Ultimately, the idea behind the pink ball is so that you can pull the crowd back. In England and Australia, there are packed crowds during the day Test matches. Maybe because we couldn’t pull crowds during day time, we wanted to experiment. Maybe we could have promoted Test cricket in a far better and bigger way as compared to how we promote our T20 and one-day cricket. I personally feel we should keep Test cricket the way it is because night Test cricket would take the charm away from Test cricket.”
India Blue’s strength is definitely their long and heavy batting line-up and skipper Gambhir utilised it totally in the last match against India Green. India Blue started the match off on a very positive note, with 336 runs on the board after stumps of Day One. India Green bowlers failed to pick up any wicket till India Blue reached 200 runs on the board. The first wicket they lost was of captain Gambhir, who scored a good 90 opening with Mayank Agarwal. Agarwal, however, has been the star performer for the side having performed consistently. The player is currently the highest run-getter of the tournament with one century, one half-century in the tournament. In the match, Agarwal contributed with 161 runs.
The India Blue consists of bowlers like Mohit Sharma, Karn Sharma, Pankaj Singh and Parvez Rasool. With the bowling and batting sides having so many elements to lift their team, the run chase is sure to be an exciting one.A lot will depend on how the pitch behaves on Days Three and Four and how the bowlers make use of the situation.
