What is Pink Ball Test: Difference between pink ball and red ball in cricket

What is Pink Ball Test: Team India will play their 3rd D/N test at home against Sri Lanka at Bengaluru’s Chinnaswamy stadium.

India defeated Sri Lanka by an innings and 222 runs to seal the first Test at Mohali. Ravindra Jadeja is certainly the most improved test cricketer in the world, and he proved his class in the game. Team India will now face Sri Lanka in a pink-ball Test at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. India has just played a couple of pink-ball games in India so far.

Team India has won both of its home D/N tests, and they will again have an advantage in this game. Axar Patel is expected to feature in the game.

What is Pink Ball Test

The Day-Night tests are referred to as the pink ball test. It is played with the pink ball as compared to the traditional red ball. The pink-ball Test matches begin in the afternoon, a difference is that players break for dinner and not lunch after the first session. The second interval is called the tea break in both red-ball and pink-ball Tests.

Same as in day Tests, dinner/lunch and tea breaks last for 40 and 20 minutes respectively. SG produces both red and pink balls for the tests played in India. The major difference between SG balls and all the other balls is that the SG balls are hand-stitched.

Much like the red ball, the pink ball is also made by hand from start to end. The process of making both balls are the same, but the shine on the pink ball stays for long. Although, the main difference is that the pink colour is much more visible under the floodlights.

Virat Kohli is the only Indian batsman with a pink-ball Test hundred pic.twitter.com/E22c5eIJUf

— Ayush Prajapati (@im_ayush___) March 9, 2022

As far as the seam is concerned, the pink ball will have a seam made of black colour as compared to a white-colour seam in a red ball. The twilight session is termed the toughest session to bat because of the visibility issues.

Generally, the pacers love bowling with the pink ball, and Mitchell Starc’s record proves the same. The seam on the pink ball helps the finger spinners to grip the ball well as well. When India played their last D/N test in India, the spinners rattled the English batters.