Australia A v England Lions clash acts as trial run for pink ball Boxing Day Ashes Test at MCG
As a trial run for a potential future Ashes clash, a meeting between an Australian and English representative side at the MCG under lights has perhaps given hope to those who want a pink ball Boxing Day Test.
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Baggy green caps under lights at the MCG and a pink ball being used to send a procession of English batsmen back to the pavilion sounds like the perfect Ashes recipe.
And a stacked Australia A outfit facing the English Lions offered plenty to think about for chairman of selectors Trevor Hohns - in attendance to watch the official Australian second XI team in action - well beyond the form of fringe players.
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Test legend Shane Warne is a huge advocate for the Boxing Day Test turning in to a day-night affair, a campaign which began initially to address the ongoing concern over the dull MCG deck.
The pitch livened up for Australia’s demolition of New Zealand in December and new wickets are being built to ensure that the strip in Melbourne is no longer a talking point.
But the potential for more consistent and exciting “reaction” from a pink ball at the MCG, in what remains the feature Test of the summer, gives serious food for thought.
“I’m all for tradition, I love tradition, but we know that, regardless of the surface in a pink ball Test, once the game gets to twilight, then night time, the ball reacts. That’s why Melbourne would be perfect for a day/night Test,” Warne wrote in his Herald Sun column on Boxing Day.
There wasn’t much reason to schedule this Australia A game under lights other than to Test the MCG as a host venue. It missed out when the round of pink-ball Sheffield Shield games was played in 2017.
The line-ups were full of Test and potential Test players on both sides too. Two of the English batters have Test centuries. Australian bowler Jackson Bird has 34 Test wickets.
It was an experiment with quality participants and a pink Kookaburra ball on a pitch which offered bit early, and then again late, but perhaps was a touch slow.
The England Lions reached 3-274 on day one of the four-day tour match after struggling at 3-55 — Zak Crawley, Keaton Jennings, and Sam Northeast all fell cheaply.
Jack Wildermuth snared two of those wickets and Bird collected the other.
But there was no more joy for Australia A for the next 64.4 overs as opener Dominic Sibley (108 not out off 250 balls) and Dan Lawrence (125 not out off 208 balls) took control.
Paceman Michael Neser (0-74), spinner Mitchell Swepson (0-42), and Mark Steketee (0-54) all went wicketless.
Cricket Australia chief executive Kevin Roberts has gone on record declaring that he would have no problem fixturing a full summer of day-night affairs too.
“Day-night Test cricket is fundamentally good for cricket and it needs to be a more important part of the game going forward than is has been in the past,” Roberts said as recently as December.
It ticks boxes for broadcasters, who threw the kitchen sink at the last TV rights deal, and would need some sort of incentive to throw anything like $1 billion at CA when the rights come up again.
Give them Test cricket between Australia and England and India in prime time over the Christmas period, with a ball hooping around and the MCG grandstands packed to the rafters with revellers.
The majority of touring countries have come around to the idea of paying at least one day-night Test, even India agreeing during the week to one for this summer. It’s likely to be in Adelaide.
But when the next Ashes series comes around in 2021-22, the MCG could be ready to take its turn in the twilight.