No day-night Adelaide Test between Australia and India
India will not play a day-night Test when they travel to Australia later this year, Cricket Australia confirmed on Tuesday 8 May.
Australia had wanted to have the opening Test of the four-match series against India, starting 6 December 2018, at Adelaide Oval as a day-night affair, but the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has turned down the proposal.
India are one of only two Full Members nations – Bangladesh are the other, while Afghanistan and Ireland are yet to play a Test – to have not played a day-night Test, whereas Australia have so far been part of four such games and have come out victorious on all four occasions.
The current International Cricket Council playing conditions says that a day-night Test can be hosted only "with the agreement of the visiting board".
“We can confirm that we have received advice from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) that it is not prepared to participate in a proposed Day-Night Test in Adelaide this summer," a Cricket Australia spokesperson said in a statement. "As a result, we can now confirm this Test match will be a Day format.
“Whilst we appreciate some Adelaide fans may be disappointed, we know how popular the Adelaide Test is and look forward to hosting India there in December."
Adelaide has hosted day-night Tests in each of the last three seasons, against New Zealand (November 2015), South Africa (November 2016) and England (December 2017). Their other day-night Test was in Brisbane in December 2016 against Pakistan.
Australia will instead play a pink-ball Test against Sri Lanka in Brisbane when the men from the island nation travel for a two-test series in January 2019.
“We are committed to hosting at least one Day-Night Test each home summer as part of our continued focus to grow Test cricket, and we are excited about the Day-Night Test against Sri Lanka at the Gabba in January," said the spokesperson.
India will tour Australia for a full series, which will consist of four Tests, three Twenty20 Internationals and three one-day internationals spread across three months. With a weakened Australian lineup without the services of Steve Smith and David Warner, who are serving a 12-month ban for their roles in the ball-tampering controversy, this provides India their best chance of recording a Test series win in Australia, something that they have not managed to do so far.