India To Play Two Day-Night Tests In Australia? Sourav Ganguly Answers

The next year’s Test series between India and Australia has already started dominating the news headlines as the possibility of a pink-ball Test start gathering steam. Cricket Australia (CA) had proposed for a day-night Test last year too only to see the BCCI reject it. Team India were not yet to get a taste of the pink-ball and thus decided against playing with it for the first time in such an important series.

But last month, India finally played their first day-night Test, four years after Australia and New Zealand played the first-ever day-night Test. And CA are now hopeful that they can finally take on India in a Test match under the lights next year. And if recent reports are to be believed then Australia are planning to play not one but two day-night Tests against India in the next series.

A CA delegation led by its chairman Earl Eddings is set to meet BCCI President Sourav Ganguly on the sidelines of Australia’s limited-overs tour of India in January, and discuss, among other things, the possibility of India playing two day-night Tests in Australia in 2020-21.

“Negotiations have not yet begun, but “we’ll mention that when we’re over there in January talking during the one-day series,” Eddings told ESPNcricinfo. “As you build that trust and build that relationship you have that chat.

“Pleasingly they’ve played their first day-night Test and won easily. Now they’ve got through that it might give them the right build-up to it over here. I’ve got no doubt they’ll consider playing one and maybe even more day-night Test matches. But that’s down the track to when we catch up with them in January,” he added.

Sourav Ganguly on two day-night Tests:

Ahead of the next month’s meeting, Sourav Ganguly has made it clear that playing two day-night Tests in a single series is ‘a bit too much’. The former India skipper was one of the driving forces behind India playing their first day-night Test. And while he is a big supporter of day-night Tests, he is not keen on seeing the team play two such games in a single series.

“Whether India go to play two day-night Tests in Australia is not assured,” Ganguly said at the India Today Conclave in Kolkata. “Two out of four would be a bit too much with the pInk ball. We will assess it. I read it in the newspapers this morning. I haven’t heard anything from the Australian Cricket Board. We will deal with it as it comes.”

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