New Delhi, April 2 (IANS) The Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati will be making its debut as a Test venue during the Indian men’s team’s 2025/26 home season, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced on Wednesday.
Guwahati, which has hosted only international white-ball games so far, apart from a few Indian Premier League (IPL) games, will be hosting its maiden Test match when India take on South Africa in the second and final game of the series on November 22. It will also hold the record for the first city in the North-East part of India to host a Test match.
The series between India and South Africa will begin at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi on November 14 and run till November 18. South Africa last toured India for Tests in 2019 but faced a 3-0 sweep as the hosts dominantly won in Visakhapatnam, Pune, and Ranchi.
Before this, India will play two Test matches against the West Indies – at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad from October 2-6 and then at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata from October 10-14. The West Indies last toured India for a Test series in 2018, but didn’t win any of the two matches it played in Rajkot and Hyderabad.
Once India wraps up their Test cricket commitments, there’s a white-ball series to be played against South Africa. The three-match ODI series between the two teams will be played at the JSCA Stadium in Ranchi (Nov 30), Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Cricket Stadium in Raipur (Dec 3) and Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam (Dec 6).
It is followed by a five-match T20I series between India and South Africa at the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack (Dec 9), Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium in New Chandigarh (Dec 11), HPCA Stadium in Dharamshala (Dec 14), BRSABV Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow (Dec 17) and Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad (Dec 19).
The series will be crucial for both teams in preparation for the 2026 Men’s T20 World Cup, to be hosted by defending champions India and Sri Lanka. India had won the four-match T20I series by 3-1 in South Africa last year and defeated the same opposition by seven runs to win the 2024 Men’s T20 World Cup title in Barbados.
–IANS
nr/bsk/
