Cricket Australia introduces day-night Sheffield Shield matches to prepare players for pink-ball

Australia have played 12 of the 22 Pink Ball Tests so far. Cricket Australia has time and again embraced the new version of Test cricket and they have decided to foray this vision into domestic cricket. The board announced that three Sheffield Shield matches will be played under lights this season. Moreover, it has vowed that there will be a minimum of one day-night Test every summer.

Adelaide and Gabba were the preferred venues for the Pink Ball Test. The upcoming games are scheduled in Adelaide, Gabba, and Bellerive Oval. The fact that the current Australian team will not get any pink ball practice ahead of the summer is a point of concern. The development is debatable as the majority of the teams in the tournament will get one Shield match.

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"We are always exploring opportunities to further enhance the experience for domestic players and best-prepare them for the challenges of international cricket. Playing first-class matches at Test venues is important, and so too is exposure to day-night conditions which have become a feature of the Australian Test summer over the past decade,” CA's head of national teams Ben Oliver said as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.

"With that in mind, we felt it was the right time to re-introduce day-night Sheffield Shield matches for our next group of international cricketers,” he added.

India will play a day-night Test against Australia 

India will be touring Australia for the five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy with the first Test scheduled to commence on November 22. The series will see one day-night Test being played between two world giants at the Adelaide Oval. Two weeks before the game, South Australia and Western Australia will play a day-night pink-ball match at the same venue on November 23.

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Cricket Australia first experimented with the day-night first-class games in the 1990s and during that period, yellow and orange balls were used. However, the pink balls were only reserved for Australia A, Prime Minister's XI, or Cricket Australia XI as they played against touring teams.