The numbers and narrative behind Australia's staggering pink ball success

Day-night Test cricket is different.

It's chaotic, it's dramatic, and now, 10 years into its existence, it's unquestionably Australian.

Out of the 24 pink ball Tests to be played since the first in Adelaide in November 2015, 13 have taken place on these shores, with day-night games becoming a staple of the Sheffield Shield season and the pink ball Test a fixture of the Australian summer.

The Adelaide Oval, although it has wrestled with the Gabba for hosting rights in recent years, remains the pink ball venue, with the city's vast architecture and appropriately magenta evening skies making for particularly pleasing drinks break montages.

And Mitchell Starc, of course, is the pink ball player.

The magenta magician, the flood-lit destroyer – he has played all of Australia's matches in the format and has taken 81 wickets, a staggering 38 more than the next best with the pink ball.

So, there is no doubt that day-night Test cricket has assumed a distinct place on the Australian cricketing landscape, nestled somewhere in the twilight zone between tradition and modernity, between the red ball and the white.

But across the rest of the cricketing world, it just hasn't taken off.

India has hosted three day-night Tests, but has largely done away with the idea, with the last coming in 2022.

New Zealand and the West Indies have hosted two each, Pakistan also put on a couple while playing home games in the UAE, while England and South Africa both hosted a solitary Test in 2017.

And that's it — that is an exhaustive list of the day-night Test matches to have taken place outside of Australia.

Home advantage plays more of a role in Test match cricket than perhaps any other sport, but never has a team possessed a trump card as potent as the pink Kookaburra.

But what makes day-night Test cricket so unique? Which players has it benefited, and which has it flummoxed?

And what chance does England, having played just one pink ball match in the Bazball era, have of springing an upset in the second Test beginning in Brisbane on Thursday?

Australia's superb pink ball record

Given it's a format designed and played almost entirely in Australia, it should come as no surprise that the green and gold have a formidable record in day-night Tests.

Of the 13 pink ball matches it has hosted, spread across Brisbane, Adelaide, Hobart and Perth, Australia has won 12 — two of them by more than an innings and three of them by more than 250 runs.

In that same time frame, Australia has hosted 38 traditional Tests, of which it has won 24, lost seven and drawn seven more.

Against England, it hasn't lost any of the 11 games it has hosted across day and day-night matches since November 2015, but has romped to victory by margins of 120, 275 and 146 runs in the three pink ball matches the nations have played.

And those numbers don't include Australia's only overseas day-night Test, in which it bowled out the West Indies for 27 to win a truly shocking game in Jamaica earlier this year.

Australia's pacemen make the pink ball their own

It is no secret that bowlers love pink ball cricket.

The bowling average of players in day-night Tests is 25.41, meaning they have performed 16.93 per cent (or 5.18 runs) better than bowlers in traditional Test cricket since the first pink ball match in November 2015.

When those numbers are isolated for pace bowlers alone, the pink ball bowling average drops further to 23.77 runs per dismissal, 17.67 per cent (or 5.1 runs) better than the red.

Australia's big three pacers have been the main drivers behind those numbers, having taken 164 wickets in 32 matches between them.

That's 27.89 per cent of the 588 wickets to be prised by pace bowlers in the format to date.

Josh Hazlewood's red ball average falls 26.34 per cent to 18.50 with the pink, Pat Cummins' from 24.15 per cent to 17.34, and Starc, the day-night destroyer-in-chief, sees his average drop by almost 12 runs, or a whopping 41.04 per cent, to 17.08.

All of this means that Australia's frontline seamers enjoy significantly larger red to pink ball glow-ups than the 17.67 per cent experienced by pace bowlers on average.

But with Cummins and Hazlewood still missing for the second Test, Starc will have a different supporting cast this week in Brisbane.

Scott Boland, who has taken 18 pink ball wickets (including a hat-trick) at a frankly ridiculous price of 13.16 per dismissal, is a lock, while Brendan Doggett is in contention to play his first, and Michael Neser his third, match in the format.

What exactly makes the pink ball so potent remains one of Test cricket's great mysteries.

Starc has said his Test match game plan doesn't really change across formats, but he has revealed that there is more than just colour separating the red and pink Kookaburras.

Speaking to Channel 7 in 2024, he said that the way the pink ball weared could contribute to the carnage often seen in day-night games.

"My experience with the pink ball, it tends to crack, and not scuff like the red ball," Starc said.

"It'll crack in the quarter seam after being hit a few times, depending on the hardness of the wicket.

"And throughout the day the lacquer and the paint will crack, where a red ball will scuff."

Difficulties seeing the ball under lights and atmospheric conditions at dusk are a couple of the other explanations put forward for the pink ball mayhem — but whatever the reason for it, it has played directly into the greatest strength of this modern Australian side.

The supporting role of pink ball spinners

Due to the success of pace bowlers in pink ball Tests, spin bowlers often take a back seat.

Since November 2015, spin has accounted for an average of 139.33 overs per day match.

That drops to just 76.29 with the pink ball.

That doesn't mean spinners haven't been effective though – they've taken wickets at an average of 30.09, a number over three runs lower than their returns in traditional Test cricket.

At 9.23 per cent, it's a drop-off more modest than the 17.67 per cent enjoyed by seamers, but one that suggests spinners still have a role in the format, especially on the odd occasion pace bowlers can't finish the innings off on their own.

Nathan Lyon has a remarkable record doing just that.

He bowls fewer overs and takes fewer wickets with the pink ball, but his average in day-night games is 25.62, 16 per cent better than his red ball average of 30.53.

However, Lyon was left out of Australia's last day-night Test – and there is a possibility he could be again.

Australia's surprising pink ball batting expert

If Lyon were to be dropped for the second Test, it would likely be to strengthen the Australian batting line-up, with batter Josh Inglis, seam bowling all-rounder Michael Neser as well as the uber adaptable Beau Webster all options for Australian selectors.

And that makes sense – after all, if bowling is so much easier with the pink ball than it is with the red, batting necessarily skews in the other direction.

Almost all of Australia's batters have experienced notable drop-offs in the format, with Steve Smith's day-night record reading particularly poorly – his average of 37.04 is more than 20 runs lower than his generational record in the cold light of day.

Usman Khawaja, Cam Green and Alex Carey have all underperformed as well.

Travis Head's counterattacking punches have proved effective in the fast-paced format, but it is Marnus Labuschagne who has truly shone under lights.

The idiosyncratic first drop has consistently been Australia's best batter in the nine pink ball matches he's played, averaging 63.86 (compared with his red ball average of 43.13), and scoring four of his 11 Test match centuries in the format.

He's probably not the first player that comes to mind when you think of the pink ball, but Labuschagne has undoubtedly found a way to repel the seaming, spitting and swinging menace.

His strike rate of 54 in the format is slightly higher than his number in red ball cricket, but it's considerably lower than most of his contemporaries under lights.

So, it doesn't seem that the colour of the ball really changes Labuschagne's approach to Test match cricket.

A patient leaver and accumulator, it may just be the case that Labuschagne's circumspect batting style is well suited to pink ball cricket.

And that clearly doesn't bode well for England.

What chance does England have in Brisbane?

The tourists' lack of pink ball experience has been well documented.

Only Joe Root (7), Ben Stokes (6), Ollie Pope (4) and Zack Crawley (3) have featured in more than a single Test.

This unfamiliarity with the format saw England's preference to not send any of its first team players to partake in the weekend's Prime Minister's XI tour match widely criticised.

And on Sunday, Joe Root — who averages 38.53 against the pink ball – questioned whether the format has a place in the Ashes at all.

"Obviously, Australia has a really good record here…you can see why we're playing one of those games," Root said.

"Ultimately, you know two years out it's going to be there, so it's part and parcel of making sure you're ready for it.

"A series like this – does it need it? I don't think so – but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be here either."

So, how this new age England side deal with the pink ball in Australian conditions is yet to be seen.

With the option to play five excellent and varied fast bowlers, they certainly have the personnel to trouble an Australian batting line-up that, for the most part, has struggled against the pink ball.

And they certainly have a blueprint to go off.

Australia's only day-night loss came at the Gabba in late January 2024, when the West Indies' pace attack ripped through the Australian batting line-up and out-bowled their Australian counterparts.

And with Cummins and Hazlewood still missing, England will never have a better opportunity to out-bowl this Australian side than it will underneath the floodlights in Brisbane.

But, similarly to the first Test, the upcoming game is likely to be won or lost by England's batters.

In Perth, their inability (or reluctance) to read the conditions resulted in farcical dismissal after farcical dismissal, and took their side from what should have been a winning position to a chastening defeat in a matter of hours.

In Brisbane, the bounce may well not be quite as prodigious, the heat not quite as dry, but if the short history of pink ball cricket is anything to go by, England's batters will have a whole lot else to contend with.

ABC Sport will blog every ball of the second Test at the Gabba, beginning on Thursday December 4.