The BCCI has agreed to allow India to play a Day-Night Test match during their upcoming Test tour of Australia later this year. The two sides will compete in a four-match Test series between December and January, with one match being a pink-ball affair. In another significant move, the BCCI has enlisted the new Sardar Patel Stadium in Motera, Ahmedabad as a possible venue to host the Day-Night Test between England and India that will be played in January-February in 2021.
India had declined playing a pink-ball game on their last tour to Australia on their last tour in 2018-19, with skipper Virat Kohli also admitting that the side were hesitant to play due to their lack pf exposure. However, the Indians played a Day-Night game against Bangladesh in November 2019 at Eden Gardens, with BCCI President Sourav Ganguly paving the way for the historical moment.
India will play four Tests on the tour this season, with Brisbane, Adelaide or Perth likely to hold the Day-Night game. Earlier, reports had suggested that Cricket Australia wanted India to play two pink ball Tests, but the BCCI agreed to just one.
“We played the day-night Test [against Bangladesh] here, we were pretty happy with how it went,” Kohli had said earlier this year on being asked about playing a Day-Night game in Australia. “It’s become a very exciting feature of any Test series and we’re open to playing day-night Tests. We’re ready and up for the challenge – whether it’s Gabba, Perth… it doesn’t matter to us, we have the skillsets as a team now to compete against anyone in the world, anywhere, in any format of the game, whether it’s white ball, red ball or pink ball, we’re ready to play anything.”
In the home season that follows the Australian tour, the Virat Kohli-led side will play a game at the Sardar Patel Stadium, which can host around 1,10,000 people. The stadium is expected to be inaugurated by US President on February 24 on his tour to India.