India’s last experience of a Day-Night pink-ball Test is something the country’s cricket fraternity would never wish to recall. India were all out for 36, their lowest-ever Test score, against Australia in the second innings of the Adelaide Test.
But that’s history and the last thing now on the minds of Virat Kohli and his men, as they go into yet another pink-ball assignment against England in the penultimate Test of the series at the swanky Motera Stadium.
“That was a different ball game. We were playing in Australia with the ball seaming and we had one-and-a-half hours of poor batting that led to a disaster. Mind you, we were still in dominating position after the first innings.
“But here we have familiar conditions and the ball is also a different one. We have played in the past with the pink SG ball, so we are quite confident of putting up a good show and we just want to be in the present and focus on our preparations,” said Cheteshwar Pujara during a virtual interaction after Saturday’s practice at the Motera.
With Ahmedabad hosting a Test in over eight years, a lot of talk is about how conditions at the Motera could be like. According to Pujara, dew may well be a factor in the final session, but it wouldn’t be wise to predict anything regarding the pitch, especially as it’s a pink-ball game.
“It looks like a decent pitch, but it’s very difficult to predict anything at this stage before the match begins because when you expect something, it turns out to be something else with the pink ball,” he stated.