Venues for India's 2016/17 home season announced
The BCCI have announced the venues for all Test matches for the upcoming home season for Team India. The Indian cricket team is set to play host to 13 Tests, 8 ODIs, and 3 T20Is.
The season will begin with a Test series against New Zealand at Indore, Kanpur and Kolkata. It will be a maiden Test for the Holkar Cricket Stadium in Indore. The Men in Blue will also play a 5-match ODI series at Dharamsala, Delhi, Mohali, Ranchi and Visakhapatnam against the Blackcaps.
The much-awaited India vs England Test series, which will consist of 5 Tests, will have matches played at Mohali, Rajkot, Mumbai, Visakhapatnam and Chennai. This will be the first time that the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Rajkot and the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam will play host to Test cricket.
The series between India and England will also be the first time that India will be home to a 5-Test series since they hosted Pakistan in 1987.
India lost their last home Test series against England, and will be hoping to put one over a side whom they haven’t defeated in a Test series since December 2008. The Tests will be followed by 3 ODIs (Pune, Cuttack, Kolkata) and 3 T20Is (Bengaluru, Nagpur, Kanpur) between the two teams.
In early 2017, Australia will come over to India for a 4-Test series which will be hosted at Bengaluru, Dharamsala, Ranchi and Pune. Apart from the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, the other three stadiums will be hosting a Test match for the first time ever.
The men from down under will be hoping for an improved performance this time around after a dismal showing in their previous Test tour to India when they were whitewashed 4-0 by the hosts.
The Indian cricket team will also host Bangladesh in a Test for the first time ever in a one-off Test at Hyderabad.
Speaking about the new venues, BCCI President Anurag Thakur said: “I welcome the new Test venues hosting this prestigious format of cricket and their arrival will take Test match cricket, to every corner of the country. We are equally excited about the domestic season as we will be playing the Duleep Trophy with the pink ball under lights and take this opportunity to welcome Chhattisgarh, who will play Ranji Trophy for the first time.”
“A combined team of Affiliate and Associate states will participate in the junior age group tournaments, which will provide the much needed opportunity to the emerging players from these areas. This further reaffirms our commitment to spread the game by providing the appropriate platforms to our next generation cricketer.”