India registered their first-ever day-night test victory against Bangladesh rewriting the test history with golden words. This may be the new era for Indian cricket, but day-night cricket is not a new thing any more. A total of 12 day-night tests have been played till date and all of them have produced results.
When everyone looked pleased with Kohli’s pink ball hundred calling it the first-ever pink ball hundred, however, it isn’t so. In fact, Virat Kohli is not even the first Indian batsman to score a century against the pink ball, it was Rahul Dravid.
Rahul Dravid scored a magnificent ton against Nottinghamshire in 2011 helping MCC win the match by 174 runs.
Australia is the most successful team with a pink ball. They have played 5 tests and won all of them (3 matches in Adelaide, 2 in Gabba, Brisbane).
Among all the batsmen, Azhar Ali is the most successful in pink ball history till date with 456 runs in 3 tests including a triple hundred against West Indies in Dubai.
Mithcell Starc is the highest wicket-taker in pink-ball tests with 26 wickets in 5 tests.
Let’s take a look at the overall day-night test records you need to know:-
TOP FIVE BATSMEN
- Azhar Ali (Pakistan): 456 runs, 100s 1, 50s 2; HS 302*
- Steve Smith (Australia): 405 runs, 100s 1, 50s 3; HS 130
- Asad Shafiq (Pakistan): 335 runs, 100s 2, 50s 1; HS 137
- Usman Khawaja (Australia): 307 runs, 100s 1, 50s 2; HS 145
- Alastair Cook (England): 303 runs, 100s 1, 50s 0; HS 243
TOP FIVE BOWLERS
- Mitchell Starc (Australia): 26 wickets, best bowling 5/88
- Josh Hazlewood (Australia): 21 wickets, best bowling 6/70
- Yasir Shah (Pakistan): 18 wickets, best bowling 6/184
- Nathan Lyon (Australia): 17 wickets, best bowling 4/60
- Trent Boult (New Zealand): 16 wickets, best bowling 6/32
Australia is the most successful test team with 5 wins (100% win ratio). West Indies is the most unsuccessful team in pink-ball cricket history. They have played 3 tests so far and lost all of them. The first-ever Day-Night Test was played between Australia and New Zealand on 27 November 2015. The pink ball was first trialled in an England and Australia women’s one day match in 2009.
