In recent times, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has been showing some reluctance towards playing day-night Test matches with the pink ball despite the offers from the teams like Australia, South Africa etc.

However, on Tuesday, BCCI’s acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary has given a clarification that the board will be taking the decision of hosting the first ever day-night Test in India soon.

While announcing the dates for the inaugural Test against Afghanistan, which will be taking place between June 14-18, 2018, Choudhary said, “This question has been popping up every now and then (about playing and hosting day-night Test) and rightly so. A decision will be taken sooner than later but not in the context of this Test match against Afghanistan.”

Also read: Ganguly's verdict on pink ball Test

In the current scenario, eight out of the 12 Test playing nations have already been a part of at least one day-night Test but the no.1 ranked Team India is still not one of them.

The first five-day day-night Test was played between the neighbors Australia and New Zealand in 2015. In 2016, former BCCI president Anurag Thakur had given hopes of hosting their first-day night Test against New Zealand in 2016 but that plan did not came into effect.

In total, there has been as many as nine day-night Test matches have been played between the teams with pink-ball. Two of them were played last month – between England and Australia, and South Africa Zimbabwe.

Also read: CA's proposal for day-night Tests

There has been also speculations that in forthcoming India’s tour to Australia later this year, Cricket Australia (CA) has given a proposal of hosting a day-night Test match for India. However, BCCI is yet to reply to the proposal, but if they give affirmation for the same then that match will be one of most anticipated ones of 2018.

With India playing very few international games at home in 2018, chances of hosting a pink ball Test this year are pretty meager.