West Indian batsman Darren Bravo vowed to give his best shot on the challenge of facing a newly introduced pink ball in the day-night Test against Pakistan starting in Dubai on Thursday. The 27-year-old left-hander smashed an attractive 91 in the West Indies' drawn three-day game against Pakistan Cricket Board Patron's XI in Sharjah on Sunday, also played with the pink ball as a day-night affair.
Bravo admitted batsmen could not pick up the seam of the pink ball but said the challenge was exciting. "Most of the guys were complaining that they were not able to pick up the seam that well," Bravo said on Tuesday. "We need to accept the challenge as quickly as possible and go out and give it our best shot." The day-night Test with a pink ball will only be the second in Test cricket's 140-year-old history, following the Australia-New Zealand encounter under the same conditions at Adelaide in November last year.
The manufacturers of the Kookaburra ball admitted they have changed the seam of the pink ball from dark green and white - on the balls used in Adelaide - to a black that was subsequently trialled in first class cricket with improved visibility. Bravo pointed out that batting under lights on a pink ball is difficult. "I think when we play in the lights the ball turns more than in the sunshine and that's the difficult time to bat. "But it's a good experience and the more time you spend in the middle it becomes easier," said Bravo, who backed day-night Tests. "They (administrators) are trying the day-night Tests to encourage people to come, they can come after their work and have time to bring their families and that's a positive. Let's hope people come and support Test cricket once more." Bravo admitted West Indies were poor in the preceding Twenty20 and one-day series where they were whitewashed by Pakistan 3-0.
"Quite honestly, by all means we didn't really perform well in the shorter formats of the game and we are disappointed about that but in the Tests we will try our best to put in much better performance. "The guys have worked hard and we are very excited about this Test with the pink ball and then the last two with the normal red ball," said Bravo. The remaining two Tests will be played in Abu Dhabi from October 21-25 and Sharjah from October 30 to November 3.