Middlesex saw their Division Two game with Glamorgan at Lord’s end in a draw

Middlesex captain Dawid Malan wants the ECB to experiment with a pink ball in the County Championship to prevent more early season washouts.

Only 58 overs were bowled during Middlesex’s Division Two clash against Glamorgan at Lord’s, with rain on the final morning ensuring the match was abandoned as a draw.

But Malan feels it could have been a different story with a pink ball in use on the second day, when no play was possible due to overcast conditions — although the Lord’s floodlights were switched on.

“We could have had a full day if we’d had a pink ball because there was no rain around,” said the Middlesex skipper.

“We were literally sitting around for four hours of bad light.

“We’re lucky that we’ve got lights now — we never had them before — but we still got hardly any cricket in.

“It might be worth the ECB looking at using pink balls this time of the year.

“If you have a ball you can use under lights in the pitch black it probably makes sense to use it at that time of the year when you’re probably going to lose more cricket, instead of the middle of summer.

“We’ve been experimenting quite a lot in county cricket over the last eight to nine years, so we might as well throw another one in.

“If it’s something that’s going to get you on (the field) and it’s not an unfair advantage to the bowlers, I think it’s worth trying and seeing what happens. You might not lose so much cricket.”

The truncated match was dominated by the seamers, with Glamorgan’s Michael Hogan taking 5-49 and Timm Van der Gugten 4-63 as the home side were dismissed for 194.

Middlesex’s Tim Murtagh responded for 4-12 to reduce the Welshmen to 38-4 in reply, but the sides were forced to settle for a draw with the match called off before lunchtime on day four.

Middlesex hope to have opener Nick Gubbins and all-rounder James Harris back from injury for their next game against Sussex at Hove, which gets under way on Friday.