Gambhir says pink ball behaves 'exactly the same way' as traditional red ball

Weighing in on the debate over the performance of the pink ball under lights, Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir has categorically insisted that the experimental ball behaves in "exactly the same way" as the traditional red ball.

"We have to be clear, it is only the colour of the ball that has changed, nothing else has changed," Gambhir was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo. "It is a Kookaburra ball that behaves exactly the same way as a red ball or a white ball. People make so much fuss about the pink ball that it swings more or dips more, you can't pick the wristspinners and so on.

"I believe the more you think about it, the more complicated you make the game. It is far more visible in the day time as compared to the red ball because it is far more brighter. In the last two games that I have played, I have seen nothing different. The red ball and pink ball behave exactly in the same way."

The Gambhir-led India Blue will take on Yuvraj Singh's India Red in the Duleep Trophy final in Greater Noida starting from Saturday.

The domestic championship was revamped this season with an intention to elicit the players' reaction to playing the four-day match under lights as well as to attract more crowds to the dwindling Test format.

The 34-year-old southpaw, however, advocated the traditional format of the game saying that pink ball cricket "would take the charm away from Test cricket".

"I am a traditionalist, I have always believed it is meant to be played during the day, that is my personal observation," he said. "You can change the 50 over to T20 format, but Test cricket should remain the way it has been because you can't lose the charm. Ultimately the idea behind the pink ball is so that you can pull the crowd back. In England and Australia there are packed crowds during the day Test matches. Maybe because we couldn't pull crowds during day time we wanted to experiment. Maybe we could have promoted Test cricket in a far better and bigger way as compared to how we promote our T20 and one-day cricket. I personally feel we should keep Test cricket the way it is because night Test cricket would take the charm away from Test cricket.