JOIN USThere is plenty of uncertainty surrounding the pink-ball format but Robin Uthappa for one is enjoying the process of getting acquainted with it.
Representing India Green in Duleep Trophy, the Karnataka opener said he was all for the change and even found it exciting.
The pink ball made its India debut with Duleep Trophy on Tuesday, leaving the players to unravel the intricacies of the day-night version of longer format. Uthappa said they needed to play more to get the full grasp of it.
“It (pink-ball format) looks good. We have to give it time. Everything changes. The play starts late and you end it very late. Once you play this format you will get used to it.
There has been a lot of night (day-night) cricket with T20 and one-day and so I feel that once we play this format on a regular basis we will get used to it. Lot of preparation happens and we don’t quite know how to prepare yet. The more we play the more we will understand how to play in this format,” Uthappa told reporters on Wednesday.
The former India player didn’t find a problem spotting the ball but said it tends to change colour under lights. “Spotting the ball is not an issue. But I think the ball changes colour when the light changes. Towards the evening it becomes kind of orange but again in the night it becomes pink. Some players have felt the ball dip on them and that is a factor.”
“We tried to get it to reverse but it didn’t.”
Asked about the match-turning partnership of 240 between Abhinav Mukund and Sudip Chatterjee: "We started off badly,” Uthappa admitted. “We bowled in bad areas. By the time we got our act together we lost the first session. When we came back they were very well set. I think the best time to bat with this ball is in the second session. I think the ball gets slightly older then and it becomes easy to bat. They batted really well and we gave a chance (Chatterjee was let off on 74) as well and they capitalised on it.”