Ashes: England hoping to hit back in Adelaide day-nighter - but it is Australia who boast pink ball prowess

Will Macpherson13 December 2021

A prevailing narrative of this Ashes has been the binary belief that day-night Tests are a boost for England, and thus a blow for Australia.

The theory goes that Thursday’s Second Test in Adelaide is well-timed for England, for whom a 1-0 deficit feels rather wider because Australia hold the Ashes and the thumping dished out in Brisbane was quite so brutal. And it was certainly felt that when a second day-nighter, in Hobart in January, was added to the schedule England, and especially Jimmy Anderson, should have been licking their lips.

At this point we should consider the respective of records of the two teams in day-night matches.

Australia have played eight day-night Tests, and won the lot. Five of those have come at Adelaide Oval. Thanks to the venue’s visionary CEO Keith Bradshaw – who died recently and will be replaced by Charlie Hodgson, a key figure in developing the Kia Oval into a commercial behemoth – Adelaide has become the unofficial home of day-night Test cricket, having hosted only one Test with the red ball since the twilight revolution of 2015.

It has been a commercial and cultural revelation, with fans flooding from across Australia – this week, that is just about still allowed with the Covid restrictions in place – and enjoying South Australia’s wonderful wining and dining options, as well as some equally tasty beaches and golf. It has become a social occasion as much as a sporting one.

It has been a cricketing success, too. Especially for Australia. In their only victory last summer, they bowled India out for 36 with the pink ball. Of their batters, David Warner (who is a doubt with a rib injury) has a triple-century against the pink Kookaburra, defying the notion that batters are instantly given night terrors by these games. Mitchell Starc averages 19, Pat Cummins 16 with the pink ball.

A glimmer of light is that Steve Smith’s day-night averages drops from 61 to 42. Another is the absence of Josh Hazlewood, out with a side strain. In 2017/18, the only Test England avoided losing was Melbourne, when Australia’s frontline attack (which is the same four years on) was broken up by an injury to Starc.

England come armed with half as much experience. After a tepid Test in 2017 against the West Indies, which England won, it has been established that playing pink-ball cricket at night in England is an unnecessary extravagance: tickets sell well in the day time; our evenings are too long to provide much of a night element; and it is impossible for players and spectators to pack enough knitwear when darkness does finally descend.

Broad and Anderson are expected to return to the England side
Getty Images

So since that Edgbaston experiment, England have only played day-night Test cricket abroad. They have done it in Adelaide, Auckland and Ahmedabad. They have lost every  time, always convincingly, and normally in fairly farcical fashion.

In Adelaide four years ago, but for thrilling passages on the third and fourth evenings, Australia dominated. In Auckland in 2018, the result was decided before dark fell on day one, as England were bowled out for 58. In Ahmedabad earlier this year, they were spun out in two days.

So scarce have England’s day-nighters been that cricketers of the experience of Jos Buttler (54 Tests), Rory Burns (30), and Mark Wood (22) have never played one. Add in Haseeb Hameed and Ollie Robinson, whose total Test tallies are still in single figures, and Thursday suddenly becomes a novel experience for half England’s likely XI.

Perhaps England’s poor record is because even in their short history, day-night Tests have been about recognising the game’s key moments and seizing them, something this team have struggled with whatever the colour of the ball. Their batting has generally struggled whenever it is not white, too.

Or perhaps it is because of England’s growing reputation as a team who think a lot but do not think well, thus selecting themselves into a tangle. You could accuse them of that in Brisbane, when Anderson and Broad were left out with this match in mind, and they certainly overthought their visit to Ahmedabad in February.

They placed too much stock in a pink ball they had never played with, believing the SG would swing round corners. The pitch spun and the ball skidded, to the extent that Root took five for eight in an England attack containing four seamers and one frontline spinner.

While Hazlewood’s replacement will not be a bowler occupying his rare air, Australia will still arrive in Adelaide with a team of greater power and pink-ball pedigree than England, who should be a good side at night, but are yet to prove it. Given, in 16 attempts, men’s day-night Tests are yet to provide a draw, now is the time.

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