Daily Times

Usman Khawaja has urged officials not to tinker too much with Test cricket or introduce a pink ball to solve bad light, after half of day two was lost to weather at the SCG.

On a day meant to belong to David Warner and the opener’s Test farewell, Sydney’s weather stepped in, with play stopped with Australia 2-116 in reply to Pakistan’s first-innings total of 313.

Warner and the 30,038 fans at the SCG were left frustrated when the retiring opener was caught at slip for 34, dashing hopes of a fairytale century in his final Test.

But the crowd’s frustration was doubled when the umpires took players from the field in the middle of the afternoon for bad light, with the floodlights on and some 40 minutes before rain began.

The situation comes in the same week that questions linger over the future of Test cricket and its viability compared with franchise T20 leagues, in which teams would have likely played through similar conditions.

Former Australian coach Justin Langer labelled the decision to remove players as “crazy” and bad for the sport, while loud boos rang out across the SCG.

But Khawaja, who has been vocal about the survival of the longest format, said there was little that could be done in the situation. “That’s just cricket, it’s been going on for 100 years,” he said.

“The laws haven’t changed. Light is light. It’s a red ball. It’s still very hard to see the red balls.

“Unless you can replicate the sun, I’m not really sure what (can be done).”

Khawaja noted that less time is lost to bad light now than in the past, given batters are no longer offered the option of whether to leave the field. Calls have previously been made for a pink ball to be used in poor light, just as it is under floodlights in day-night Tests.