Test cricket will never be the same again

Players train under lights at the Adelaide Oval. Photo / Getty Images

Enter the spectacular, redeveloped Adelaide Oval and just inside the main entrance is the Bradman Room, paying homage to the most famous name in cricket.

The thought occurred on the eve of one of the most significant events in the game: what would Bradman the administrator, seen as a man who ruled for decades with an iron hand, have made of pink balls and day-night test?

He was no Luddite, and the likelihood is that, given his progressive attitude towards laws and sundry changes down the years, he'd have given it a thumbs up.

The players may have their reservations, but the rush of ideas in recent days means the test game may look quite different in five years.

Day-night tests, pink balls, four-day tests, limiting the first innings to 100 overs, doing away with the toss, giving the visiting team first option - the ideas range from the reasonable to the too exotic, but they have in common energised thinking on the future direction of the game.

The New Zealand and Australian players won't be worried about all that. For the hosts, at least part of their minds will be on their former test teammate Phillip Hughes, who was felled by a cricket ball a year ago this week and died, never regaining consciousness.

Tributes are planned. New Zealand players will wear black armbands. The remembrance may be a particularly Australian business, but New Zealand players were affected by it late last year when playing a test in Sharjah which they didn't want to.

For both teams, there's the planting of feet in the pink ball waters and all the intrigue surrounding how it will play out.

But for New Zealand, above all, there's the chance to square their series with a victory. The series began full of hope, took a nosedive in Brisbane, but ground was regained in Perth. New Zealand are tracking in the right direction. They'll still need a hefty final shove to get across the line.

Whatever. Test cricket won't be the same from here on.