With Indian team management, headed by chief coach Ravi Shastri, intimating the Committee of Administrators (CoA) that the team will take at least 18 months to prepare for the Day/Night Test, acting secretary Amitabh Chaudhary was told to pass on the message to CA chief executive James Sutherland.
Cricket Australia wanted the opening Test at Adelaide from December 6-10 to be a pink ball Test match. "I am directed to say by the Committee of Administrators that India would begin to play in the format only in about a year's time. Under the circumstances, I regret to say that the proposed D/N test cannot be played and all tests will have to have the conventional structure," Chaudhary wrote in his e-mail to Sutherland.
Last week, Sutherland had told a radio station in Australia that India's reluctance to play the pink ball Test was primarily because of their urge to win the series. Australia has not lost a single Test match under lights played at home. On the other hand, among Indian players, only Cheteshwar Pujara and Murali Vijay have played Day/Night pink ball matches in Duleep Trophy.