Sheffield Shield 2024-25 – CA schedule of day and night Shield matches to create a pink ball experience

Cricket Australia has announced that three Sheffield Shield matches will be played under floodlights this season to give Australia’s domestic players exposure to daylight conditions given that there will be at least one home Test each summer going forward.

The matches are scheduled for the Adelaide Oval, the Gabba and Bellerive Oval, with Adelaide and the Gabba being the chosen venues for the pink-ball Tests of late summer.

However, the timing of the games means that none of Australia’s current Test squad will get practice with the pink ball ahead of the summer Test despite most of the squad having played at least one Shield match in preparation.

CA has announced that South Australia and Western Australia will play a pink-ball day-night match at the Adelaide Oval on November 23, just two weeks before the night Test between Australia and India at the same venue. However, there will be no current Australian Test players involved as the match clashes with the first Test in Perth.

Queensland will face Victoria at the Gabba on November 24. The match could feature one or both of Michael Neser and Scott Boland who have played pink-ball Test cricket and could be in the squad for Australia this summer depending on Australia’s fitness. the fastest there is.

“We are always looking for opportunities to improve the experience of domestic players and better prepare them for the challenges of international cricket,” said CA national team head Ben Oliver.

“Playing first-class matches in Test venues is important, as is exposure to the night-time conditions that have been a feature of Australia’s Test summers for the past decade.

“With that in mind, we felt the time was right to reintroduce the Sheffield Shield night games to our next batch of international cricketers.”

CA scheduled day-night Shield rounds continuously between 2013-14 and 2017-18, first experimented with day-time first-class cricket back in the 1990s when yellow and orange balls were used.

Pink ball matches since then have been reserved for Australia A, Premier XI or CA XI matches against visiting teams.