England touring teams have faced some daunting challenges down the years. Winning a Test in the Caribbean when the West Indies pacemen were in their pomp and the region’s training facilities were virtually non-existent seemed well-nigh impossible. More recently, taking on an Asian spin attack on pitches designed to break up has also felt like an insurmountable task.
But what awaits Ben Stokes and his team here at the Gabba this week must count among the tallest mountains any England side has been asked to climb. Day-night Test cricket has been an integral part of Australia’s domestic schedule since 2015, but meanwhile it is a format that the rest of the world has merely dabbled with.
As if Australia were not already strong enough in their own uniquely testing conditions, they now hold the advantage of being masters at navigating a path through a format of the game that is played in three distinct phases — daytime, dusk and night, with the ball liable to behave differently in each, and especially hard to bat against during twilight.
Australia have won 12 of the 13 pink-ball Tests they have hosted, eight in Adelaide, three in Brisbane and one each in Perth and Hobart. Their only defeat came against West Indies at the Gabba in January last year, but even that setback was only a narrow loss, by eight runs.
As a grisly aside, Australia’s record at the “Gabbatoir” is one of the great home records in any sport, at any venue — in all Tests, 42 wins to set against only ten losses, and in Ashes Tests, 13 wins versus four losses. England’s last win was in 1986.
Australia have established a well-defined path to victory in day-night Tests. They work very hard to control the very first innings of the game because this enables them to subsequently bat or bowl at the most favourable times.
The Gabba is perhaps Australia’s most notorious venue. It usually hosts the first Test of the Australian summer, and this match will be only the fourth day-night game at the ground
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The records of Australia’s seamers — Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and even Jhye Richardson — are exceptional in pink-ball Tests, but they often have their batsmen to thank for making sure they chiefly bowl when conditions are to their liking. This may explain why only four visiting batsmen have scored hundreds while 12 Australians have done so. Eleven of these hundreds came in the first innings of the game.
If Australia win the toss they will bat, and look to bat deep into the second day. In six of the seven games in which they have batted first they have ground out scores in excess of 400 but, just as importantly, occupied the crease for at least 125 overs.
Starc is dangerous with the pink ball, which swings more violently for a shorter period when new than a traditional red ball
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The exception was Hobart in 2022 when they were put in by England, lost early wickets and were dismissed in 75.4 overs, but still reached 303 thanks to an attacking century from Travis Head. This was still enough for them to dictate terms for the rest of the game.
Australia’s success batting first shows that pink-ball cricket is not necessarily one-way traffic in favour of the bowlers, but they generally amass their big scores by accumulation rather than aggression.
Batting beyond lunch on the second day was important because it allowed Australia to start bowling as dusk started to descend and the floodlights took over from natural light — and batting for the opposition was at its hardest.
This strategy worked so well that in every instance bar Hobart, Australia were able to take a first-innings lead of more than 200, which gave them the luxury of deciding whether to enforce the follow-on.
Stokes and his fellow batsmen must be patient in their scoring to give their bowlers the most favourable conditions in which to operate
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Interestingly, though, they chose to do so only once, against Pakistan at Adelaide in 2019 when they had the chance to bowl again as dusk descended and bowling conditions were good. They duly took three quick wickets. The other times they decided to bat again and wait to bowl again when the light conditions were at their most favourable.
It all depends when the follow-on option becomes available: is it a better time to be bowling, or batting?
What is striking is that no opposition side who has batted first has been able to control the game in the same way. The only visiting side to have made more than 260 batting first was West Indies, in the game they went on to win. They lost five wickets for 64 in the first session but Kavem Hodge and Joshua Da Silva then shared a stand of 149 and the innings extended into the second day. Australia were left chasing the game and found themselves — rather than West Indies — batting during the trickiest periods.
On the other occasions, because the opposition were generally bowled out inside a day, Australia’s batsmen were able to do the bulk of their early batting in the first two sessions of the second day when conditions were easier.
In three of the five games they won batting second, Australia took leads of 124, 179 and 157, which effectively settled the game there and then. They ran out easy winners each time.
The only times the game has hung in the balance after the first innings was in the first day-night Test in 2015 when New Zealand trailed by 22 and ended up setting a target of 187 which Australia lost seven wickets overhauling. India claimed the biggest advantage when they took a lead of 53 at Adelaide in 2020, only to inexplicably collapse for 36 all out, with eight wickets tumbling early on the third day.
If England are to win this week, the message is simple. If they bat first they must go against their instincts for fast runs and bat well into the second day. If they bowl first, they must bowl out Australia in a day, allowing their early batsmen an opportunity during daylight hours.
That said, the new pink ball is always dangerous when hard. There is no getting away from the fact that whatever you do, you will have to do it well.