Indian and England skippers Virat Kohli and Joe Root are wary of the difficult batting conditions during the twilight period in day-night Tests, which can trigger batting collapses ahead of their third Test in Ahmedabad’s Motera Stadium, starting Wednesday.

India and England will face each other in a pink-ball Test for the first time. 

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“It’s much more challenging to play with the pink ball regardless of what pitch you are playing on,” AFP quoted Kohli as saying on the eve of the Test. 

“And especially in the evening, if, as a batting team, you are starting your innings under lights, then that one-and-a-half hour is challenging,” he said. 

“When it starts to get dark, especially during that twilight period, it gets very tricky. Light changes, it’s difficult to sight the ball and under lights is like playing the first session in the morning in a normal Test match. The ball tends to swing a lot.”

Both teams have painful memories from day-night Tests, with Australia bundling out India for their lowest-ever score, 36, in Adelaide in December, while England were bowled out against New Zealand in Aukland for 58 in 2018. 

“Both are bizarre experiences for two quality sides. Barring that 45 minutes of bad cricket (in Adelaide) we dominated the Test match. We are very confident in how we play the pink ball,” Kohli said.

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Root also said that batsmen need to be more careful throughout the Test, not just in the twilight period when natural light starts fading and the floodlights come on and the ball can start swinging. 

“I think there’s been a trend in all the pink-ball Test matches of collapses on occasion,” Root told reporters. “It seems to be a trend and it’s something as a batting group you need to make sure you stop.”

“It’s sometimes been right at the start of the game, you know the morning session, late on in day four, that this strange sort of passages of play has happened.”

“When you get that opportunity and you’re on the right side of it, you’re in the field with a ball in hand, you really get and roll with it. You take every opportunity and chance and you make that really count in your favour.”

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“Similarly with a bat in hand, you’ve just got to really make sure those (first) 20 balls, you’re fighting with everything you’ve got to get yourself in, get accustomed to the wicket, the conditions and make sure you build that partnership which is so vital,” Root said. 

Authorities have allowed attendance of 55,000 people into the Motera Stadium, which is the world’s largest with a capacity of 110,000, for the third Test.

Both sides come into the crucial encounter on the back of convincing wins in the two Tests in Chennai. England won the series opener by 227 runs, with India bouncing back with a 317-run victory in the second Test.  

Apart from the series itself, both teams will have added incentive with qualification for the World Test Championship final up for grabs. Another defeat for either side will rule them out of the race for the final at the Lord’s Cricket Ground in June, while a series draw will see Australia playing New Zealand in the inaugural final.