India will play a day-night Test in Adelaide if Australia tour goes ahead: Report

Virat Kohli and Co are set to play their first day-night Test away from home.

Despite uncertainties surrounding India’s tour of Australia for a Test series later in 2021, Virat Kohli and Co are set to play a day-night Test for the first time Down Under in Adelaide, ESPNCricinfo reported.

In a move that will please Australian camp, the four-match Test series is scheduled to start in the first week of December at Gabba in Brisbane. India did not play the traditional curtain-raiser for Australia’s summer during the 2018-’19 series and captain Tim Paine had quipped in November last year that he would certainly love to play Kohli’s team at the venue, provided the Indian captain gave it the go ahead.

The teams are then expected to head to Adelaide for the pink-ball match that has become a traditional part of the Australia season but was not played on India’s previous visit. This will be followed by boxing day and new year’s Tests in Melbourne and Sydney.

India had not played a day-night Test on the previous tour, with no previous experience of the pink ball but the Sourav Ganguly-led BCCI administration had organised a match under floodlights at Eden Gardens in 2019.

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Cricket Australia is reportedly under financial stress and is keen to have the India series, scheduled between October 2020 and January 2021.

“I guess there’s no such thing as certainty in today’s world so I can’t say 10 [out of 10], but I’m going to say nine out of 10,” chief executive Kevin Roberts had told News Corp.

“With the variable being, who would know whether we can have crowds. I’d be really surprised if we can’t get the Indian tour away. But I wouldn’t, hand on heart, suggest we’ll have full crowds from the start. We’ll just have to see how that goes,” Roberts had added.

There were reports that either Adelaide or Perth could act as a hub for India’s tour, playing host to all the matches but that plan now seems to be out of consideration according to ESPNCricinfo.