More pink ball Test extravaganza: Australia to play Pakistan and South Africa at home

Pink Ball – the future?

The cricketing world is once again all set to witness some day-night Test and pink ball extravaganza as Australia is scheduled to play two day-night Tests against Pakistan and South Africa during the coming Australian summer.

In a revamp of home international scheduling, Australia will host a day-night Test against Pakistan in December at Brisbane. 

Perth, meanwhile, will launch the international summer in December with the first Test against South Africa.

The pink ball craze

At the instant success of the inaugural pink-ball Test against New Zealand in Adelaide last year, Cricket Australia during the Test received requests from the PCB where the Pakistan team expressed their desire to play Australia with the pink ball.

Later, South African Board also showed their interest in playing day-night Test with Australia.

The first day-night Test between Australia and New Zealand made a banging impact where many welcomed it while many experts deemed it as impractical.

According to some, it would be absurd if day-night Tests were played in the sub-continent because of the dew factor. While some believed that it should be reduced to a four-day format.

In spite of all the pros and cons, what day-night Tests actually did was that it put the focus back on Test cricket.

Cricket Australia is expected to finalise their international and domestic calendar for the 2016-17 season later this April. According to reports, under scheduling changes, the Gabba would forfeit its customary hosting rights to the first Test of the season.

Instead, in December, it will host the opening match of the Australia-Pakistan series. Unconfirmed reports suggest that the season would kick off in November with a Test between Australia and South Africa at Perth.

Cricket Australia, however, is not yet to officially discuss the schedule, given the complicated nature of the planning involved.