Ollie Robinson has branded day-night Test matches "gimmicky" ahead of England's pink ball game against New Zealand in Mount Maunganui, which will kick off their two-match series.
There have been 20 day-night Tests played since they were first introduced in 2015 and England have a particularly poor record when playing under floodlights with the pink ball. Since winning the first and only day-night Test to take place on home soil against the West Indies in 2017, England have lost their last five by very wide margins.
Robinson featured in two of those, defeats to Australia by 275 and 146 runs respectively in Adelaide and Hobart, and the 29-year-old has questioned the point of day-night Tests altogether.
"Traditional Test cricket, there's nothing wrong with it to start with," he said. "I don't think we need to play these pink ball games.
"It's a bit gimmicky. They're trying to get crowds in and change the game a little bit but the way England are playing Test cricket at the moment, I don't think that needs to happen.
"We could stick to how we're going and we're entertaining people as we are so I'm not sure if it's necessary really." In his two outings with the pink ball for England, Robinson has taken five wickets at an average of 29.20 and he does not like how "inconsistent" the ball can be.
"I'm not a massive fan of that ball, no," he added. We've been trying to get them to swing this last week and they're very inconsistent. They're just not a traditional cricket ball.
"We've been trying a lot in the last week or so to get the pink ball moving and it's proved pretty challenging. It's not as consistent as the red ball, Dukes or Kookaburra, which swing for a little while and allow you to shine them.
"This has a layer of lacquer on it and it's really hard to shine and keep it swinging. It's so hard to set yourself up and set the game because you don't know how they're going to react in the game."
