Pink ball mysteries keep Anderson awake at night

So many and varied are the mysteries conjured by the pink ball in Test cricket, the game's most successful fast bowler admits it has repeatedly kept him awake at night.

Depending on who you ask, the heavily lacquered pink Kookaburra ball can summon properties more often attributed to the plague-proportion colony of grey-headed flying foxes that inhabit Adelaide's Botanic Gardens barely a kilometre from the city's famous cricket ground.

By day, both entities remain dormant to the point of being essentially comatose only to fly off in directions uncharted in search of hapless prey as soon as the sun sets low in the western sky.

For James Anderson, whose 632 Test wickets is the most by a pace bowler in the game's 145-year history, the unnatural behaviour of the non-traditional ball is a phenomenon he's studied on the television in the wee hours of English winter to try and unlock its vagaries.

Anderson was a keen viewer of last Australia summer's day-night Vodafone Test when Josh Hazlewood (5-8) and current captain Pat Cummins (4-21) dismantled India's vaunted batting line-up for 36 in just 21.2 overs.

But Anderson, at home on his couch in Manchester on a chilly pre-dawn Saturday morning, was even more intrigued to see a team led by Virat Kohli and regarded among the powerhouses of international cricket succumb to the pink ball in the full glare of Adelaide summer afternoon sun.

Conventional wisdom has it that day-night Tests are essentially disparate contests depending on whether they are fought under former or latter conditions.

However, both Anderson and Cummins agree the pink ball – unlike the airborne mammals who hang upside down from the branches of pine trees in Botanic Park during daylight hours – can spring to life at any hour, which makes the newest Test format perhaps its most compelling.

"It is quite temperamental still, it's not like a given it's goingto swing around corners or seam or anything like that," Anderson said of the pink ball, with which he claimed his first five-wicket haul in Australia on his fourth Test tour down under in 2017-18.

"I've watched most of the pink ball Tests here (in Australia), whether it was actually being here or in the middle of the night back home just to try and get an idea of how I should be bowling in these conditions to see if I can pick up anything from anyone.

"That (demolition of India) was certainly a spell I watched and hopefully I can do something similar."

Cummins, who has played five day-night Tests for 26 wickets at a lower-than-career average of 16.23 runs apiece, admits there is still much that remains a mystery about the how the pink ball behaves even though it's been a regular part of the Australia summer for the best part of a decade.

"I think it just brings more unknowns," Cummins said of the format that was pioneered at Adelaide Oval in 2015 when Australia narrowly defeated New Zealand.

"We've played eight pink-ball games (in Australia) and it's still not a huge sample size, but you feel like you learn something new each time you play one.

"So I think the unknowns of it are kind of the leveller at some stages.

"You might get a period of play where the ball just starts swinging around and you can't really explain why, or nipping around.

"One hour can be a long time in a pink-ball game. Either nothing can happen for an hour or it can be darting around everywhere, and you feel like you could lose a wicket every ball."

Anderson refutes the notion the pink ball becomes dormant during the day, although he concedes it's notably less lively ... except on those occasions such as India encountered a year ago.

When it's showing few signs of life, England's longest-serving Test player claims bowlers have to rely on their own skills rather than the magic property of the ball and opt for defence rather than push hard for wickets.

"It doesn't necessarily do nothing during the day, but it might not do as much," he said on the eve of the second Vodafone Ashes Test that starts at Adelaide Oval today (3pm AEDT).

"It's just reading the situation of the game – you might not want to over-attack at the start.

"We know it's generally a good pitch here, and when the pitch is good and the sun's out it won't do a great deal but there might be times during the game – twilight or when it gets dark and under lights – when it might do a little bit more.

"It's just trying to take advantage of those times when it does do a little bit."

In his first Test as captain in a pink-ball game, Cummins acknowledges the changed circumstances and x-factor of the potentially swinging or seaming ball make for a markedly different tactical landscape.

In previous Tests played at Adelaide, teams have opted to declare an innings closed as the floodlights come into effect in order to maximise the potency of the pink ball.

However, the new Australia skipper believes his team must first "earn the right" to engage in that level of tactical contrivance and preferred to concentrate on the elements of the upcoming Test that he could predict with certainty, such as the state of the Adelaide Oval pitch.

"It feels like you could set your clock to this wicket every year," Cummins said yesterday.

"It's exactly the same.

"A really nice coverage of grass, pace, bounce, a bit of spin, just a really good cricket wicket and hopefully similar to last year.

"It's a wicket where if you bowl really well you feel in the game, but if you're just off the mark the batter can get away.

"You saw Davey Warner hit 300 here a couple of years ago (against Pakistan).

"We've got a bit of experience to lean on, but definitely when you start off the match you can't see it playing out exactly like a red-ball game."

Vodafone Men's Ashes

Squads

Australia: Pat Cummins (c), Steve Smith (vc), Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, Jhye Richardson, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner

England: Joe Root (c), James Anderson, Jonathan Bairstow, Dom Bess, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler, Zak Crawley, Haseeb Hameed, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Dawid Malan, Craig Overton, Ollie Pope, Ollie Robinson, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood

Schedule

First Test: Australia won by nine wickets

Second Test: December 16-20, Adelaide Oval

Third Test: December 26-30, MCG

Fourth Test: January 5-9, SCG

Fifth Test: January 14-18, Blundstone Arena