{"id":322137,"date":"2025-12-02T06:02:18","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T06:02:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/322137\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T06:02:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T06:02:18","slug":"australias-pink-ball-test-dominance-as-englands-alastair-cook-and-joe-root-outline-why-theyre-not-fans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/322137\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia’s pink-ball Test dominance as England’s Alastair Cook and Joe Root outline why they’re not fans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nobody in the English<\/a> camp seems particularly keen for a pink ball Test to feature in the Ashes<\/a>, and given Australia’s<\/a> dominance in the format it’s hard to blame them. <\/p>\n

The likes of Joe Root<\/a> and Alastair Cook have made their thoughts clear in the last week, feeling the spectacle of the Ashes does not need the theatre of darkness. <\/p>\n

Australia was the innovator of pink ball cricket, with the first day-night Test taking place in 2015 in Adelaide against New Zealand. <\/p>\n

READ MORE: ‘Scary’ Cummins bowling ‘beautifully’ as Gabba twist floated<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"Day-night<\/p>\n

Day-night Test cricket in Adelaide.\u00a0Cricket Australia via Getty Imag<\/p>\n

There have now been 25 pink ball Tests played across the world, with 13 of those taking place in Australia.<\/p>\n

Of those 13, the Aussies have only lost once – to the West Indies in Brisbane in 2024.<\/p>\n

The English Cricket Board clearly aren’t that fond of the format. They have only hosted one day-night Test, and that was all the way back in 2017.<\/p>\n

They have been involved in quite a few on foreign soil, including being on the receiving end of three comprehensive Ashes thrashings in Australia.<\/p>\n

England has also played two day-night Tests in New Zealand, winning one and losing one, as well as one loss in India.<\/p>\n

Overall, they have won just two from their six total appearances. <\/p>\n

Pink ball cricket has clearly favoured pace bowlers since its inception, so it’s not particularly surprising that Australia has dominated the format.<\/p>\n

Mitchell Starc has emerged as the face of pink ball bowling, taking 81 wickets across 14 matches at an average of 17.08.<\/p>\n

Combine him with Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins and you have a pretty handy recipe for success.<\/p>\n

Of course, Hazlewood and (probably) Cummins will miss the Brisbane Test<\/a> this time around, with Scott Boland and Brendan Doggett set to join the in-form Starc.<\/p>\n

Already down 1-0 and having been bowled out in two days in Perth, the English camp has every right to be nervous about a day-night Test.<\/p>\n

Not only is the match taking place on the bowler-friendly Gabba, but the lack of daylight savings in Queensland means more of the match will take place in darkness.<\/p>\n

\"Alastair<\/p>\n

Alastair Cook in Perth for the first Ashes Test.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Former England captain Alastair Cook says the black stitching on the pink Kookaburra makes it incredibly hard to pick up the seam, which favours a bowler like Starc immensely, and leads to play that goes against the ethos of Bazball.<\/p>\n

“What I would say is that the pink ball is harder to pick up in flight. Two of the reasons Mitchell Starc is such a good pink-ball bowler are a) he is able to swing it, and b) the seam is trickier to see,” he wrote for The Telegraph. <\/p>\n

“The period around dusk, as the artificial lights in the ground begin to take over from the natural light, is reckoned to be the trickiest time. The pink ball can produce phases of play in which the ball seems too influential, and changes the game too drastically.<\/p>\n

“What do you do as a batsman when the pink ball and the conditions are so heavily in the bowler’s favour? That’s the challenge. You are going to have to be reactive.<\/p>\n

“That is, of course, not what this England side normally do.”<\/p>\n

Cook isn’t a huge fan of day-night Test cricket, saying it’s not “necessary in the Ashes”.<\/p>\n

“When we played one in Adelaide, a great sporting city, it just felt like a shame that the fans could not head back into town and go for a drink or a bite to eat and discuss the day’s events. That vibe just gets ruined with late-night finishes,” he said.<\/p>\n

Of course, his concern is about South Australian fans’ dinner plans, not how heavily the format seems to favour Australia. <\/p>\n

\"Joe<\/p>\n

Joe Root speaks to media prior to an England nets session at The Gabba\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

English batter Joe Root has similar feelings about pink ball cricket<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“I personally don’t think so,” Root told the BBC when asked if the Ashes needed day-night Tests.<\/p>\n

“But it does add to things. It’s obviously very successful and popular here and obviously Australia has a very good record as well.<\/p>\n

“So you can see why we’re playing one of those games and ultimately you know two years out that it’s going to be there. It’s part of making sure you’re ready for it.<\/p>\n

“A series like this, does it need it, I don’t think so, but it doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be here either.”<\/p>\n

Michael Vaughan labelled the English team “amateurish”<\/a> for not taking the chance to prepare for the pink-ball Test by facing Australia’s Prime Minister XI in Canberra in a lead-in game.<\/p>\n

All of England’s XI opted out of the match, instead heading to Brisbane despite the lengthy gap between Tests. <\/p>\n

Root defended the decision, saying they wouldn’t gain a heap from playing in Canberra. <\/p>\n

“This is the best way to prepare personally,” Root said.<\/p>\n

“It’s very different in terms of humidity and heat, and the surface is going to be very different.”<\/p>\n

We will find out on Thursday when the Gabba Test gets underway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nobody in the English camp seems particularly keen for a pink ball Test to feature in the Ashes,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322138,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-322137","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cricket","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}