Gautam Gambhir : Pink ball behaves same as the red ball
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Denying the assertions of the difference between the pink ball and the red ball, former Indian opener Gautam Gambhir said that both the balls behave the same way. The Delhi southpaw has also expressed his happiness with his form and also said that he doesn’t think much about the India selection.
Gautam Gambhir, who is leading the India Blue side in the ongoing Duleep Trophy now, has strongly supported the introduction of the pink ball in the longest format of the game. Although, he personally feels the Test cricket should be played in the day in order to keep the tradition alive.
Speaking to ESPNcricinfo from Delhi, Gambhir said, “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 wrist spinners 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 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."
But the 'traditionalist' Gambhir believes Test cricket should be played during the daytime only. The Delhi opener said, “I am a traditionalist, I have always believed it is meant to be played during the day that is my personal observation. 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.”
He added, “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.”
After playing three consecutive brilliant innings for India Blue, he has also expressed his happiness on getting back to form.
"I am very happy because, obviously, at the start of the season, you are very nervous because you want to start off the season really well. Three half centuries in a row is really pleasing and I hope I can continue this momentum into the season. But at the same time, I would have loved to convert these half centuries into hundreds. I still have two more innings to go.”
Gambhir has captained Delhi in the Ranji Trophy and Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League. His attacking captaincy has reaped dividends to his team, more often than not.
Gambhir said, “Since I made my debut, we hadn't won 12 or 13 outright games like we have in the last 2-3 years. My aim has always been to prepare wickets which can give us outright results. We could have easily gone and played on flat wickets where people could have scored 800-900 runs in a season. But I have always believed that is not the way to play this game, it is meant to be played to win.”
He concluded saying, “"If we go out there and think we need to get the first-innings lead and I need to score my own hundred or double-hundred and try and represent my country that would be very unfair on the bowlers as well. Then, I would have been very selfish about my own individual performances and thinking about my own comeback. What about the other 10 people then, who would be helping me or help Delhi, win? I may have ended up with less than 500 runs, but with a young side, we won four outright matches and missed on qualifying by one point. If you score runs on a result-oriented wicket, it gives you far more satisfaction than scoring them on a flat track."
