Off-spinner Dom Bess felt the conditions were not ideal for play on the third evening of England's third Test against Pakistan at Southampton.

According to Bess, it was "really dark" and thus some England fielders appeared to lose sight of the ball. He also described the conditions "seriously dangerous" for tailenders to be facing fast bowlers.

Bess further cited an example when he couldn’t spot the ball at square leg after Azhar Ali pulled a short ball in his direction.

"It's no excuse, but it was really dark out there," he quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo. "I was stood at square leg, and Azhar pulled one off Jofra [Archer] and I did not see it. In all seriousness, if that goes near someone or is hit straight at me, I genuinely don't know what I'm going to be doing.

"I guess playing in those conditions, we've got to be really switched on with it and actually we got to start thinking I think a little bit about the players' wellbeing. You've got [No.] 10 and 11 there having to face up to someone like Jofra as well in those conditions - it is seriously dangerous.

"I think the light meter reading was 430 [lux]. The game before when we came off it was about 700. Obviously we all want to be playing cricket but I think as well there's got to be a little bit more common sense in terms of players' wellbeing.

"You take [Mohammad] Abbas, the No. 11 - you don't want to see them getting hit or anything like that, in terms of it being really dangerous."

Bess doesn’t think that Michael Gough and Richard Illingworth's acted irrationally by keeping players on the field after criticism in the media throughout England's series against West Indies and Pakistan. However, he reiterated that more common should be used by umpires.

"Obviously we all want to be out there playing cricket, but again there's got to be a little bit more common sense in terms of when it is too dark," he said. "I think if you get the meter readings out there, as we walked back on then it was 430 so I think that paints the picture.

"We are trying to get cricket played but from just my perspective on players' wellbeing, imagine if someone gets hit there and it is really serious. Say the No. 10 or 11 gets hit by Jofra because we are out there - what happens then?

"I guess it's just calling out for a bit of common sense in terms of when it is too dark, we've got to go [off], and when it's not, we try and play because everyone wants to be out there."

Coming to the match, Pakistan got bowled out for 273 at stumps on Day 3 after England declared their first innings on 583/8. Skipper Azhar Ali was the top scorer with 141 not out, while wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammad Rizwan made 53.

Dom Bess bowled 18 overs in Pakistan’s innings and claimed the wicket of Fawad Alam.

"It's just been an amazing summer in terms of being picked as first spinner," he said. "For me it's about learning on the job, learning what to do for the side in terms of my role - obviously in the first innings try and contain, and hopefully as the pitch breaks up a little bit more, I'll come into the game a bit more.

"I love it. I love learning - it's a great challenge because we've played against some great Pakistani batters, and they're very good against spin so for me it's challenging myself, seeing where I am at the moment. To be honest, I'm absolutely loving it."