Ryan Harris against day-night Test at the Gabba
Ryan Harris, Queensland’s fast bowler has warned against the Australian national side playing their Day/Night Test fixture against South Africa at the Gabba. According to Harris, the Proteas have a deadly pace attack which could be a problem for the home side to play against under lights with the new pink ball.
The Australian cricket board proved the inaugural Day/Night Test match at the Adelaide Oval as a massive success. The chief executive, James Sutherland kept the possibility of having a couple of Day/Night Tests against Pakistan and South Africa.
CA is in talking terms with Cricket South Africa and the Pakistan Cricket Board to finalise the fixtures yet. Adelaide Oval is still the frontrunner for the second Day/Night Test. The Gabba could be the other option for the second fixture next summer.
The South Africans are due for a tour in November and with a solid pace attack, Australian quickie Ryan Harris is afraid that the fixture could end in two or two and a half days.
According to him, the first Test at Brisbane shouldn’t be the venue. He said, “I don't think Brisbane is a logical place to play it just yet, it would be a big mistake given the bowling attacks we have and South Africa have.
“It could potentially be over in two, two and a half or three days. If it's one of those hot Brisbane days, you'd certainly want to bowl when the sun goes down. It'd be zipping around everywhere.”
The inaugural Test match at Adelaide saw the curator, Damien Hough put extra grass on the pitch so that the debutant pink ball doesn’t debilitate easily. But according to Harris, this could be a major issue with Gabba’s pitch as it already has a green shade on it.
Harris added, “The ball would be in reasonable shape but the batsmen wouldn't be, I reckon it would be tough to play it at the Gabba. What we saw in Adelaide, it'd probably be five or 10 times worse. In Adelaide they were obviously very worried about the visual factor of the ball. If you take a fraction more grass off that, it's probably the perfect cricket wicket.”
Ryan Harris was one of the attendees to the first Day/Night Test match. How much he loved it as a spectator doesn’t really matter because he is still apprehensive of the pink ball.
He concluded, “It looked very good as a spectacle, I don't think we're far enough down the line with the ball to use it in a big series, against South Africa for example, I was surprised they did it with New Zealand, given the way they'd been playing.”
The pink ball has had a very mixed review after the first match and players are mostly worried about the hard seam of the ball and its visibility at some times. So, CA and Kookaburra are now trying to evolve the ball by changing the seam colour to “jet-black” and also reducing the glow of the ball.