The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president, Sourav Ganguly confirmed that the men’s cricket team will play a day-night pink-ball Test against Australia during their 2020-21 tour Down Under, for the first time in ‘Border-Gavaskar’ trophy history.
The two teams will take on each other in four Test matches which will be followed by three One-Day Internationals next summer.
The decision was taken by the board's apex council that met in New Delhi on Sunday.
“Yes, India will play a Day/Night Test in Australia. A formal announcement will be made soon,” Ganguly was quoted by the Press Trust of India.
The decision was reportedly taken after reviewing India’s first-ever day-night test played against Bangladesh at the Eden Gardens in November 2019 became a massive hit.
During India’s tour to Australia last November, the BCCI had refused to play a day-night pink-ball Test in Australia due to its own lack of experience in the format.
It is understood that the day-night Test between India and Australia will either be played in Brisbane or Perth.
Virat Kohli and Tim Paine with the Border - Gavaskar trophy. Source: Ryan Pierse/Getty Images
But Cricket Australia is yet to issue a formal confirmation in this regard.
Earlier, during the home ODI series against Australia, Indian captain Virat Kohli had expressed his views about playing a day-night Test against Australia.
“We played the day-night test against Bangladesh and we were pretty happy with how it went.
"It becomes a very exciting feature of any Test series and we are open to play day-night tests. We are ready and up for the challenge – whether it’s Gabba, Perth…it doesn’t matter to us., " said the skipper.
New Motera Stadium to host England test
As per reports, BCCI has decided that the new Motera stadium in Ahmedabad will host one of the day-night tests against England in January – February 2021.
The newest stadium can accommodate 110,000 people at a time, significantly more than Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) has 100,024 seating capacity.
Fans welcome BCCI’s decision
The team India fans have welcomed BCCI’s decision. Some of them took to Twitter to express their views.
Here are some of the tweets…
