England head coach Chris Silverwood has on Wednesday (August 19) offered a solution to tackle rain and bad light impact in the ongoing Test series against Pakistan after the second Test ended in a draw at the Ageas Bowl due to poor weather and gloomy skies.
Only 134.3 overs of play was possible in the drawn second Test across five days due to poor weather and bad light despite the Ageas Bowl floodlights were in use and even the forecast remains unsettled for the third and final Test starting on Friday (August 21).
Silverwood has approved England captain Joe Root’s idea to start play half-an-hour earlier than the scheduled 11 am to make up for time lost during the Test after the matches have been so badly affected by weather interruptions but insisted has had “no official word” it would happen.
The head coach also confirmed that there would be “no complaints from us” if the change was introduced for the final Test against Pakistan.
Silverwood said: “It makes sense to me. We have a period at the start of the day we could use, but we try to lump it at the end when light is an issue. In my opinion, it would be a good idea.”
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He added, “I know there are chats around it and there will be no complaints from us if it happens so we'll just wait to see what they [the ECB] come back with. But I've had no official word it'll happen. We are all here anyway. It's not like any of us are traveling so it wouldn't be very hard to make it happen.”
Chris signed off, “If there were spectators in, you'd feel for them as well - the sense of frustration that you get when people have paid money to go and watch cricket. If it got out there that we were starting half-an-hour earlier then people would probably make an effort to get in half-an-hour earlier.”
(With Sky Sports Inputs)
