India set to host day-night Test

India are set to follow in Australia's footsteps and host a day-night Test match against New Zealand later this year.

Board of Control for Cricket in India secretary Anurag Thakur confirmed Thursday India would use the pink Kookaburra ball in the day-night Test, with India's first-class competition to be used as a trial run for India's players in the lead-up.

"We have decided that we will play one day-night Test match with pink ball against New Zealand later this year," Thakur said.

"Before that the Duleep Trophy will act as a dress rehearsal for the day-night Test match."

New Zealand are expected to play three Tests and a host of limited overs matches in an as-yet unconfirmed tour of the subcontinent in October and November. 

"While we have not zeroed in on the venue, there are lots of factors that need to be taken into account," Thakur said.

"Things like dew factor, how the spinners bowl with the pink Kookaburra on Indian pitches. These things we will get an idea during the Duleep Trophy."

The announcement came a day after Cricket Australia released its 2016-17 men's international schedule which included a confirmed day-night Test against Pakistan at the Gabba and a proposed match against South Africa in Adelaide, which the Proteas have so far balked at agreeing to.

View: 2016-17 men's international schedule

The use of the pink Kookaburra ball for the day-night Test on the subcontinent is a shift away from the red SG ball regularly used in India, but Thakur didn't rule out using a pink SG ball in the future.

However, the Proteas are reluctant to go ahead with the twilight Test, which is scheduled for the third Test of the Commonwealth Bank series against Australia at the Adelaide Oval.

The South African Players' Association and Test captain AB de Villiers have voiced their concerns about the visibility and the durability of the pink ball.

De Villiers said a discussion with Australia's players, during March's the three-match T20 tour in South Africa, about their experiences in the inaugural, and hugely successful, day-night Test last summer raised alarm bells.

"At the moment we are not too keen on playing in the proposed day-night Test match due to a few concerns that have come from a number of sources involved in the maiden Test played last year," De Villiers said in Bangalore.

"We had a meeting with Steve Smith and some of the Australian players when they toured here earlier this year and the consensus from our talks were that there are just too many unknowns, players from both teams were reluctant to go ahead with it.

"South Africa and Australia have a great cricketing rivalry and this is a series that we value, we could well be playing for an opportunity to regain the No.1 Test ranking so playing a day-night match is a fundamental change to the itinerary."

Cricket Australia General Manager of Team Performance Pat Howard said Smith was a strong believer in the concept, but said the Australia skipper still had reservations about the pink ball which is continually being updated and improved.

"I didn’t think it was fair (de Villiers' comments), but that’s fine, I’ll let it go and we’ll just keep working with our guys," Howard told News Ltd.

"I find Steve (Smith) absolutely fantastic … in terms of finding the balance in terms of the history and working towards trying to innovate for the fans. He’s been really good to work with and you get really nice feedback.

"Steve is absolutely integral. His feedback in terms of personally representing the players really importantly, he’s been wonderful to deal with in that regard.

"(De Villiers’ comment) definitely doesn’t represent any communication we’ve had together with him."

Proteas spearhead Dale Steyn said he would "love" to play in a day-night Test match before his stellar career finishes, but later backtracked on Twitter that did not mean against Australia this year. 

"I don't want to go through my whole career without playing a day-night game," Steyn told cricket.com.au exclusively in Rajkot.

"How cool are they? I thought it looked awesome when New Zealand and Australia played one. It looked entertaining, there was a big crowd. 

"The ball is pink – it's something different. You want to test your skills with that whole thing and it's very exciting."