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By Adam Ellis
Ahead of England’s first-ever Day/Night Test match on home soil, bowler Stuart Broad has described the switch from red ball to pink as like ‘stepping into the unknown’.
England face the West Indies at Edgbaston on Thursday in the first of a three-match Test series against Jason Holder’s side, in their penultimate series before flying to Australia for the Ashes.
With the Day/Night Test in England something new to both the hosts and the tourists, Broad revealed he has spoken to County players for pointers on how the pink ball ages over-after-over.
“The county lads said it’s not shined up very well at all, that it’s gone really soft really quickly – it’s given different bounce for the spinners but not really turned,” Broad said.
“This week, I promise you, we are stepping into the unknown, I just don’t know what to expect.
“This is a big series for us and this is the first Test of the series – it’s quite nerve racking. You’re playing something that is completely unknown to you but you still have to stamp your authority on the series. It think it really opens up the series to start with.”
It’s highly unlikely that any Pink or White cricket ball will ever have the qualities of an English made red leather ball, the dye will not take in the leather, does anyone know how we have got to this position. There are a lot of people involved in the first class game who have colour blindness and pink in the worst colour for them. The pink ball needs to be ditched and replaced by a yellow ball that can have the same qualities of the red ball. Hopefully the new T20 competition will be played with a yellow ball that will shine up.