Former India captain Rahul Dravid has called on 'skeptical' international players to have an 'open mind' about playing day-night Test cricket with the pink kookaburra ball, insisting that initial experiments will provide valuable lessons that will help evolve the concept.
"I think it's natural to be wary when you first start, it's stepping into the unknown a little bit," Dravid was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo. "But as more and more matches are played, like we saw with the success of the Test in Adelaide, I think players will warm to the idea."
Players from across the world have so far given a mixed reaction to the concept, with Australia and South Africa agreeing to play a day-night Test in Adelaide in November.
The 43-year-old, who is popularly known as 'The Wall', continued: "The conversations that I am hearing around the players' group is yes, there is a bit of skepticism, there are people who are a bit worried and are not completely sold on it, but as more games are played and people see that the ball holds up pretty well, the nature of the game isn't changing too drastically from a normal match, we play on seaming tracks or square turners, different wickets in Test cricket.
"You could start the morning of a Test match on a seaming wicket and it improves as the game goes on. Here it might start flat and it might seam as the game goes on. There are going to be things that are slightly different but there are things that are different in every Test match in each and every country that you play in that are unique to that country and surface as well. So, I don't think that's something that should count as a negative."
While there has been no confirmation regarding India playing a day-night Test in their upcoming home season, a few steps have been taken in that direction. The Cricket Association of Bengal organised the first pink-ball match in India at Eden Gardens earlier this week with the Duleep Trophy to be played under lights later in the year.
