The red ball and pink ball behave exactly in the same way: Gautam Gambhir

Gautam Gambhir, who is leading India Blue I the ongoing Duleep Trophy, hasn’t found the Pink ball very different and asserts that asserted it behaves in “exactly the same way” as the red ball. He, however, says players do need to make minor adjustments while playing under the lights.

“We have to be clear, it is only the color of the ball that has changed, nothing else has changed,” Gambhir told ESPNCricinfo from Delhi. “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 wrist spinners 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 daytime 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 Duleep trophy, played in a zonal format previously, was re-formatted this season by the BCCI is being played with the pink ball for the first time. The tournament was planned this way also as to experiment with the concept of Pink ball in Indian conditions. Many thought that the Pink wouldn’t survive the Indian pitches and humid conditions. However, so far , the innovative idea to increase the popularity of the Test format has worked in India.

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“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.”

The Gautam Gambhir-led India Blue will face India Red, led by Yuvraj Singh in the final in Greater Noida starting September 10.