To reduce the steepness of pink ball day-night events, where bowlers have had the upper hand, Sanspareils Greenlands (SG) has started work on a “new technique” that will reduce the extra glow of the ball while retaining its color . Paras Anand, SG’s marketing director, is hopeful that the experiment, if successful, will bring more parity between bat and ball. An additional coat of hairspray is used on the pink ball to give it a shine, which helps with visibility.
“We have already started working on that. There are newer techniques to get (retain) the color on the ball and that new technique will reduce the glare on it and the glitter obviously makes the ball move faster off the shelf. That work is already underway, ”Anand told The Indian Express. “Once it’s ready, once it’s been tried and tested, we’ll definitely talk about it (sharing details about the new technique),” he added.
SG, BCCI’s official ball supplier, has accelerated the ball manufacturing process through this new technique after the third India-England test in Ahmedabad that ended in two days.
A range flipper was set up for the third test, but the pink ball almost slid off the surface. As Virat Kohli said after the match, 21 of the 30 plots had been accounted for by direct deliveries.
“Weird game … I have never been part of a test match where things have moved so fast,” the India captain had said in the post-match presentation. “I would say that one element is the ball, the plastic coating accelerates at the gate, to be brutally honest. Both sides struggled with that throughout the game, ”England captain Joe Root said.
SG has taken note. “Now this problem has come up suddenly after this test in Ahmedabad, that people say the ball was doing a little bit more off the surface. This is the response we did not receive after the first game (against Bangladesh in November 2019), which ended in two days and one session in Kolkata. (But) now the issue has come up, and once the series is over we will contact the BCCI. But we have started looking at how to tackle this problem, if we can work on the way that we are preparing the ball and if maybe we can make sure that at least (we) get as close (to the red ball) as possible, ”Anand said. .
Since its inception in 2015, so far 16 tests have been played day and night, a couple of them passed in two days and four games finished in three days. Whether stitching or twisting, bowlers in general have mastered the pink ball trials.
In December last year, Australia’s pink ball test against India in Adelaide ended on the third afternoon, with the visitors packed for 36 in its second inning and Australian closers Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins sharing nine wickets between them.
The curtain fell on the third India-England Test in Ahmedabad early in the final session of the second day, with the spinners pocketing 28 of the 30 wickets that fell in the game.
The pink ball, unlike its red counterpart, is still a work in progress. Look, initially when they gave us a summary for the pink ball; two things were very critical. One was that the ball should retain color for 80 overs so visibility is not an issue under the lights. The other thing was that the ball should have the seam and general playability like a red ball, like the way a red ball can last 80 overs in a test match. So those were the two main parameters that we were initially targeting and that has been achieved, “Anand said, adding,” Whether it’s Joe Root or the Indian team players, they have raised it (the issue) and now we’re going to address it. “
In a recent press conference, Ravichandran Ashwin mentioned how the odds have stacked in favor of bowlers in pink ball cricket. “If you give the bowlers a little favor, this is what could happen. When there is a little bit of an edge for bowlers, where you swing more or hit more, the margin of error for the batter is very small. “
At the same time, he admitted that familiarity with the pink ball will help players adapt better. “You play more and more and you get used to it, the players will adapt better.”
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