England's hopes at mercy of pink-ball lottery - Broad

England's hopes of levelling the Ashes in Brisbane are dependent on a pink-ball "lottery", says former bowler Stuart Broad.

The second Test, which starts on 4 December, is a day-night match at the Gabba and follows an eight-wicket win for Australia in the first game.

It means each day starts in natural light but concludes under floodlights, and a pink ball is used rather than the traditional red ball of a Test match.

"We know the pink-ball Test, having played a few ourselves, is a bit of a lottery," said Broad on the For The Love of Cricket podcast.

"Ultimately the best team generally wins Test matches but this one, it's on a bit more of a knife edge of conditions."

England have lost all three of their day-night Tests in Australia.

They were beaten by 120 runs in Adelaide in 2017, before 275-run and 146-run defeats in Adelaide and Hobart on their last tour in 2021.

"If you can get a brand new ball under the floodlights at the Gabba, you should be taking wickets and you can break the game open," said Broad.

"It is all about timing a little bit of when you bowl with the brand new ball.

"That is why I don't like bowling first in pink-ball cricket because you bowl with a brand new ball in daylight and it doesn't do a lot.

"By the time you get to the twilight period the ball is 60 overs old and doesn't do anything - and the new ball comes too late in the day.

"Winning the toss and batting is pretty crucial in the pink-ball Test in my opinion. That is my feeling in pink-ball cricket. It is going to be one hell of a challenge."

Australia have won 12 of their 13 day-night Tests in home conditions, with their only defeat coming against West Indies at the Gabba last year.

Sides have opted to bat first in 11 of those games, with six going on to win.

"I'm not the biggest fan [of pink-ball Tests] to be honest," added Broad.

"It's quite situational dependent, so if you can manipulate the game to get a brand new ball in the twilight, you've got a great chance of doing really well because the ball just seems to zip around a little bit more.

"There's something about the pink ball, you just can't pick it up quite as well. You get no clues as well, so the seam is black against the pink background, whereas with a red ball and white seam you might see Mitchell Starc's in-swinger coming back into the stumps or scrambling around.

"It's just the lights are reflecting off the pink ball so it's almost like a big planet coming flying towards you.

"It means you're just judging it from the movement off the surface or reading off the movement of the ball, but at such pace it's quite difficult to do.

"That's why I think it is quite important to bat first because even if you are bowled out by tea when it's starting to go dark, you have a brand new ball under lights. And if you bat well you can control when you bowl in the game and in the day."