Need to stop comparing red and pink ball, good players will succeed regardless, says Tim Paine
Tim Paine has called for an end to comparisons between the pink ball and red ball in Test match cricket, arguing that good players would adjust their game accordingly and succeed. The Aussie skipper is in favour of playing more pink Tests as it draws larger audiences to the game’s longest format.
Four years after the pink ball made its debut in Test cricket, some sceptical voices still want the day-night format to retain as much of the traditional format as possible. Paine, however, accepts that pink ball will never behave as the red ball does, but believes that it is a worthwhile sacrifice for the sake of entertaining the ever-increasing audience. The Aussies won the second Test at the Adelaide Oval against Pakistan by an innings and 48 runs in front of 91,879 — more than double that of the first Test at the Gabba.
"I think what we want is people watching Test match cricket and I think the pink-ball day-night Test certainly makes that happen. It's bringing new people to the game. I think what we need to stop doing is trying to compare the pink ball to the red ball. It's not going to behave the same, it isn't the same ball," Paine said, reported Cricbuzz.
Citing examples like Mitchell Starc’s pink-ball record and David Warner’s marathon triple-hundred, Paine is confident that good players will find ways to step up to the new challenges.
“From a players' point of view again, day-night Test cricket creates different challenges so the best players will again find ways to succeed. And Mitchell Starc has done it. His record is unbelievably good with the pink ball. David Warner has just got a triple century. Marnus got a 100. All the good players still score runs and take wickets regardless of the colour I think it's just a slight shift in how we think about it. It's just something players will adapt to and get better at but in terms of the product I think it's good to watch," he said.
Paine further revealed that his decision to enforce Pakistan to follow-on was because of the evening session assisting the bowlers a lot.
"If we had taken the wickets quickly we would've bowled as well. We were hoping to get them a lot quicker than we did. It was getting closer to having a bat, but the conditions have certainly favoured bowling at night and a couple of our batters were pretty keen to keep bowling. I thought last night when the lights came on it was a pretty simple decision, although our bowlers had bowled a lot of overs, they had a decent rest for the first two days so we knew they had plenty in the tank," Paine added.
Although the board is yet to enter into formal discussions with India about a pink Test when they tour Australia next summer, chief executive Kevin Roberts and chairman Earl Eddings remain positive.
