Indian team for Zimbabwe ~ Aussie and New Zealand to play Night TEst

A cricket ball is not a perfect sphere. The seam of the ball is the circular stitching which joins the two halves of the cricket ball. Hence, the seam joining the pieces of leather is circumferential and the stitching is noticeably raised.  

The ball – red cherry became a white one with the advent of One dayers [one new ball at each end !] - After Kerry Packer-promoted Pyjama cricket – coloured uniforms, white ball, floodlitdaynight one-day matches in 1977 – cricket is now headed for day-night Tests.  Another experimentation talked about is the ‘pink ball’ !

It is confirmed that the Test match between Australia and  New Zealand will be played under lights and with a pink Kookaburra ball.Australia and New Zealand will play the first ever day-night Test under lights with a pink ball in November 27 at the Adelaide Oval, according to a report.The match headlines a six-Test summer schedule released by Cricket Australia  confirms it to be the 3^rd test fo the Series. 

Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland said the day-night Test puts fans first, with more spectators able to attend or watch on television.“One of the global challenges with Test cricket is that most of the matches outside holiday periods are played on week days, in the middle of the day when people are at work and kids are at school,” Sutherland was quoted as saying by www. cricket.com.au.“By shifting the playing times each day’s play can go into the evening and allow people to come in after work or after school to attend the last few hours of play, but also when they get home in other parts of the world or other parts of the country, they can watch the game on TV,” he said.

While most agree the concept is great in theory, there is far less certainty about details such as the pink ball and its behaviour, the adjustment from day to night, and the effects the concept will have upon a format all players rate highly as the fairest and truest test of prowess with bat or ball.  New Zealand's players have been loudest of all in their worries about the concept, and their players association chief Heath Mills said an agreement had ultimately been reached because Brendon McCullum's team could see the "bigger picture" benefits of regular cricket against Australia.  Australia's coach Darren Lehmann has been a vocal supporter of the concept.

It is believed that New Zealand's players will play two tour matches under lights before the Adelaide Test, while Australian players will have one day-night Sheffield Shield round following their return home from a short tour of Bangladesh, and perhaps another between the second and third Tests.A start time for the day-night Test is still under consideration and not yet confirmed, but one possible scenario would see play start at 2.30 p.m. and run until 9.30 p.m. Adelaide time. That would mean play would be from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. in Melbourne and Sydney, 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. in Brisbane, noon to 7 p.m. in Perth and 5 p.m. to midnight in New Zealand.

In the International calendar, West Indies will take part in a tri-series in Zimbabwe in August-September along with the hosts and Pakistan, the WICB has confirmed. West Indies and Pakistan are currently ranked eighth and ninth in the ICC ODI rankings, with only a point separating them. Only the top-seven sides as on September 30, apart from hosts England, will make it to the 2017 Champions Trophy.Bangladesh are ranked seventh and their recent win against India has given them a reasonably comfortable five-point lead over West Indies, with a three-match home series against South Africa to follow in July.

Back home, AjinkyaRahane has been selected to lead a second-string India side to Zimbabwe for the proposed three ODIs and two T20Is. ODI captain MS Dhoni, Test captain ViratKohli, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, R Ashwin, ShikharDhawan and UmeshYadav were rested for the tour. One man neither in any of the squads nor on the list of the players rested was RavindraJadeja. Squad changes for Zimbabwe tour.  No specialist wicketkeeper was named in the 15-man squad, but there were three batsmen-wicketkeeper options in Robin Uthappa, KedarJadhav and AmbatiRayudu. Out of the three, only Uthappa is the regular wicketkeeper of his IPL side.  The ODI squad: AjinkyaRahane (capt), M Vijay, AmbatiRayudu, Manoj Tiwary, KedarJadhav, Robin Uthappa, Manish Pandey, Harbhajan Singh, Axar Patel, Karn Sharma, Dhawal Kulkarni, Stuart Binny, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohit Sharma and  Sandeep Sharma.

At Colombo, Lanka levelled the Series calmly winning the 2^nd Test.  Sri Lanka negotiated a 153-run target, the threat of rain and a brief batting stutter to eventually ease to a seven-wicket win over Pakistan.  Opener DimuthKarunaratne's fifty and his 72-run partnership with captain Angelo Mathews for the third wicket was the calming influence in a chase that had got off to a frenzied start.Kumar Sangakkara was done in a delivery of Yasir Shah that spun in and took a deflection off the glove to short leg. The third Test begins in Pallekele on July 3.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

30^th June 2015.