Kohli answers if day-night Tests should become future: The Indian captain opened up on the future of day/night Test cricket.
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India captain Virat Kohli considers fielding to be the “biggest challenge” with the pink ball. Speaking on the eve of India’s first pink-ball Test match in Kolkata, Kohli opened up on how fielding with the pink and red ball differs from each other.
“The fielding session with the pink ball was biggest challenge. People will be surprised how difficult fielding can be with the pink ball. The ball definitely felt heavier.
“I’m sure there won’t be any difference in weight but somehow it felt heavier. While taking slip catches the ball really hit the hands hard. Even while throwing from the boundary, the fielders felt they needed to put extra effort,” Kohli was quoted as saying.
On not playing day-night match during Australia tour
During their tour of Australia last year, India refused to play a day-night match in Adelaide. While many reasons were speculated behind the same, Kohli opened up on why the Indian team wanted to play a home Test with the pink ball before playing it in on overseas soil.
“It [day-night Test] had to happen eventually. The thing was to experience the pink ball test in our own conditions first so you get a hang of how the ball behaves. Then eventually going on and playing pink ball Test anywhere in the world.
“It can’t be a sudden thing. A few guys practiced even before the series started. You can’t two before we get on to a plane say that we are going to play a pink-ball Test in a week’s time. We didn’t think it was logical from that point of view,” Kohli said.
Virat Kohli answers if day-night Tests should become future of Test cricket
Being asked about if day-night Tests should be the way forward in Test cricket, Kohli didn’t shy away from speaking against the same. The 31-year old cricketer didn’t aim at playing the format for just “entertainment”.
“This can be a one-off thing. It should not, in my opinion, become a regular scenario. You can bring excitement into Test cricket but you can’t purely make Test cricket based on just entertainment. The entertainment of Test cricket lies in a batsman trying to survive a session, a bowler trying to set up a batsman.
“If people don’t want to respond to that, too bad. If I don’t like Test cricket, you can’t push me to like it. Those who enjoy the battle between bat and ball and great session of Test cricket, in my opinion, those are the people that should come and watch Test cricket because they understand what’s going on,” Kohli added.
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