The England team suffered a humiliating 4-1 defeat in the 5-match Ashes series in Australia. England somehow won a match. One match in this series was also played with pink ball, but we may not see pink ball test in the upcoming Ashes series. The reason behind this is that the England and Wales Cricket Board is going to reject the concept of day-night test in the Ashes series.
Nepal needs 189 runs in 96 balls at an average of 11.81 per over.
England plan to reject any proposal to play a day-night Test under floodlights with a pink ball in the next Ashes series in Australia. According to the report of BBC Sport, the England and Wales Cricket Board i.e. ECB has made its stand clear to Cricket Australia i.e. CA for the 2029-30 series after the post-Ashes talks between senior officials. The England team had lagged 0-2 after the second Test match of the Ashes series played at Gabba, Brisbane. This match was a day-night test, which Australia won in a one-sided manner. In the talks held between ECB and CA, the focus was on keeping the Ashes as a top series. Test cricket is losing its charm. If such Test matches continue to happen, it will be a matter of concern. England and Australia are going to play a day-night Test in March 2027 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the first Test of the Ashes at the Melbourne Cricket Ground i.e. MCG. This plan was actually finalized in August 2024 itself. It is believed that England will get a chance to play a warm-up match before this special match at MCG. The pink ball test may definitely benefit the broadcaster, but the game is not benefiting much. The same thing has been told to BBC by the former Australian cricketer, who talked about switching the match from pink ball to red ball. The day-night test was approved by the ICC in 2015, with which it was expected that the fans would join it, but this has not been seen to happen. Australia has definitely laid emphasis on the pink ball test and out of the 25 day-night test matches played so far, 14 have been played in Australia. Australia has also won 14 out of 15 matches with pink ball. Joe Root had also raised questions after the Pink Ball Test in Brisbane and asked whether it is needed in the Ashes? England are going to get a lot of warm-up matches before the next Ashes.
