India vs Australia Pink Ball Test Record: Adelaide brings up the memory of the disastrous batting show India Cricket Team displayed back in 2020 Australia tour. They were bowled out for their lowest total in Tests: 36. Four years later, India won’t be worried about that. Instead, India would be a confident unit in the IND vs AUS Pink Ball Test after routing the Aussies by 295 runs in Perth. However, Pink Ball or Day/Night Test is a different ball game. Australia Cricket Team can outmatch India in experience. No team has played more Day/Night Tests than the Aussies and that experience could be key for the hosts to bounce back.
Australia have a combined experience of 81 Pink Ball Tests in the current line-up. India, on the other hand, have played only 20 combined. Virat Kohli and Ravichandran Ashwin are the only two players who have played all four Pink Ball Tests.
India vs Australia Pink Ball Record
Australia have an astonishing 11-1 record in Pink Ball Test. Their only loss came against West Indies when Shamar Joseph ran through Australia’s batting line-up with a match-winning 7/68. But that too was a narrow loss for the Aussies as they suffered an 8-run defeat in Brisbane,
For India, Rohit Sharma & Co have played only four Day/Night Tests, winning three and losing one. The loss came in Adelaide on the last tour when India were bowled out for 36, ending the Test in three days.
| Team | Mat | W | L | D |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australia | 12 | 11 | 1 | 0 |
| India | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
Day/Night-mare for India?
When it comes to the experience of playing Day/Night Tests, Australia are head and shoulder above India. Australia have played a total of 12 Tests. Josh Inglis, Nathan McSweeney and Beau Webster are the only three players who do not have any experience of Pink Ball in international cricket.
Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Starc and Steve Smith have played the most matches. Lyon and Starc have featured in every Day Night Test for Australia. Smith has played 11 of them.
Among Australian batters, Marnus Labuschagne has enjoyed great success in Pink Ball cricket. He has scored 894 runs in just eight matches. Steve Smith (760), Travis Head (543) and Usman Khawaja (516) have also scored regularly in Day/Night Tests.
But it’s their bowling unit that India should be wary of. Mitchell Starc leads the pack with 66 wickets in 12 matches. Josh Hazlewood has bagged 37 wickets while Nathan Lyon has also picked up 43 wickets.
Australian Players’ Stats in Day/Night Test
| Player | Mat | Runs | Wkts | Best |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pat Cummins | 7 | 169 | 34 | 6/23 |
| Scott Boland | 2 | 18 | 7 | 3/16 |
| Alex Carey | 4 | 246 | 0 | 65 |
| Josh Hazlewood | 8 | 34 | 37 | 6/70 |
| Travis Head | 8 | 543 | 0 | 175 |
| Josh Inglis | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Usman Khawaja | 7 | 516 | 0 | 145 |
| Marnus Labuschagne | 8 | 894 | 1 | 163 |
| Nathan Lyon | 12 | 182 | 43 | 5/69 |
| Mitchell Marsh | 2 | 63 | 3 | 28 |
| Nathan McSweeney | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Steve Smith | 11 | 760 | 0 | 130 |
| Mitchell Starc | 12 | 297 | 66 | 6/66 |
| Beau Webster | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
For India, Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Mohd Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy and Devdutt Padikkal have no experience of Pink Ball.
Virat Kohli is the leader in the scoring department with 277 runs in four matches. He also had a century. Rohit Sharma is the other batter who has scored 173 runs in three matches.
Surprisingly, Ravichandran Ashwin has been the top wicket-taker in Pink Ball Tests with 18 scalps. Jasprit Bumrah has bagged 10 wickets in three Tests.
Indian Players’ Stats in Day/Night Test
| Player | Mat | Runs | Wkts | Best |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rohit Sharma | 3 | 173 | 0 | 66 |
| Jasprit Bumrah | 3 | 7 | 10 | 5/24 |
| Yashasvi Jaiswal | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Abhimanyu Easwaran | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Shubman Gill | 1 | 26 | 0 | 15 |
| Virat Kohli | 4 | 277 | 0 | 136 |
| KL Rahul | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Rishabh Pant | 2 | 90 | 0 | 50 |
| Sarfaraz Khan | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Dhruv Jurel | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| R Ashwin | 4 | 67 | 18 | 4/48 |
| R Jadeja | 2 | 38 | 1 | 1/48 |
| Mohd Siraj | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Akash Deep | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Prasidh Krishna | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Harshit Rana | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Nitish Kumar Reddy | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Washington Sundar | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1/1 |
| Devdutt Padikkal | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Why should India be wary?
Despite exceptional performance in the IND vs AUS Perth Test, India have a rookie Test line-up at the moment. In Pink ball, almost everyone is a rookie. The hard lacquer on the pink ball makes it swing more. There is also the lateral movement that Indian batters have struggled against.
Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins have enough experience in Pink Ball Tests to make life difficult for Indian batters. On the other hand, Indian bowlers haven’t played a lot with the Pink Ball. Australian batters are more experienced in playing Pink Ball and that could be an advantage for the Aussies.
