With the next Border-Gavaskar Trophy most likely to feature the first-ever D/N Test encounter between Australia and India, left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc is excited over the prospect of delivering with the pink-ball, that seems to do a lot in twilight and night hours, in home conditions against the likes of Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara & co.
India declined to go ahead with the traditional game in Adelaide during its last trip in 2018-19 season citing lack of practice. But the stance for the upcoming tour changed after the new BCCI regime, led by president Sourav Ganguly, organised the country's first-ever D/N Test in November last year against a visiting Bangladesh side.
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"I think absolutely a pink ball test in this series against India is a great thing," Starc told reporters in a video call on Tuesday (May 26).
"The fans love it, it creates a different aspect of the contest. I think bat and ball are a lot closer together. India have obviously played a pink ball Test at home so they’re not completely foreign to it."
"I guess in terms of the advantage if you like, we do have a good record at home with the pink ball. It’s no different to us going to India and they’ve got the advantage there," he added.
Australia has won all seven of its home D/N Test matches, with Starc taking 42 wickets at an average of 19.23 in those games.
India's difficult task will be to rewrite history books by becoming the first visiting side to beat the Aussies in the pink-ball version.
At the moment, however, there remains a great deal of uncertainty over the entire four-match Test series because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Starc, meanwhile, is wary of ICC Cricket Committee's recommended ban on applying saliva on the ball in cricket matches played amid or after the deadly outbreak is over.
The 30-year-old fears for the imbalance such a ban will create between the two main disciplines of the game, with bowlers further marginalised and batsmen ruling the roost.
"Kids aren’t going to want to be bowlers because as we saw in Australia over the last couple of years, there were some pretty flat wickets and if that ball’s going straight, it’s a pretty boring contest," said Starc.
(Inputs from Reuters)
