WORCESTERSHIRE will be able to call upon two players with experience of playing with pink duke balls when they face Durham in their Specsavers County Championship day-night match at the Emirates.

Wicketkeeper Ben Cox and batsman Joe Clarke will be able to relate to their team-mates the knowledge gained from playing under such conditions for the MCC versus Champion County Middlesex in Abu Dhabi during March.

The pair acquitted themselves well with Clarke scoring 89 and Cox 40 in addition to impressing behind the stumps.

Worcestershire will meet Durham, starting on Monday, when all counties use pink balls and floodlights in the next round of games.

The experiment is in preparation for England's historic day-night Test against the West Indies at Edgbaston in mid-August.

Cox says adjusting to playing in the twilight period is a crucial factor in dealing with the challenges presented by such fixtures and batting becomes more of a test in that time span.

When to make use of your most effective bowlers is also a balancing act to contend with and Cox points to the pink duke ball remaining harder for longer and a more potent force.

The former Bromsgrove School pupil said: "The fact me and Clarkey have played in such conditions recently will help us 100% with the Durham game.

"I hope it will help us as a group. Hasto (John Hastings) has played some pink ball cricket as well.

"I'd never played a day night game before the one with the MCC and it was good experience regarding how to go about the cricket, what to expect, how to use your bowlers, how to bat.

"We understand what periods in the day are important. Obviously at 2pm it's about walking out and taking new ball wickets.

"But it's also about preserving your best bowlers for later in the day, making sure they come back fresh.

"In the UAE, your opening bowlers would try and take wickets, if not you would move quickly to your spinner and try and get him to bowl tight, build a bit of pressure and then bring your seamers back later into the day at twilight time.

"It's going to be a different challenge for Leachy (Joe Leach) next week, a balancing act of his bowlers."

Cox believes the twilight period presents one of the biggest challenges partcularly as the pink duke ball remains harder for longer.

He said: "It starts nipping around more, it swings more and misbehaves. I don't know why but it is very difficult to bat when that twilight sets in.

"You are waiting for the twilight period as a fielding team. You are trying to get through to 5pm or 6pm or even 7pm over here with the twilight here.

"But conditions change massively. It will be interesting to see the twilight period and how the ball plays here.

"It stays light over here for a long time whereas in Abu Dhabi you go off for tea and it's twilight and you come back after tea and it's pitch dark. That change of light happens a lot quicker.

"But over here, it will be interesting to see how it plays particularly with the pink duke because the pink duke stays hard and obviously the harder the ball stays, the more it does. It will be interesting to be part of it.

"Even on an abrasive surface in Abu Dhabi, we managed to bring the ball back to a good condition and with the overheads it started swinging and nipping around.

"It's a bit like when we had the 10.30am starts in the one-day cup. The ball always did a bit more. It's almost like that when you get that twilight period."