India: India’s forthcoming home internationals for the 2021-22 season have been officially declared by the BCCI. During their home season, India will host New Zealand, Sri Lanka, the West Indies, and South Africa. The season will be divided into two parts, as the team will fly to South Africa in December-January after hosting the Kiwis for three T20Is and two Test matches. The season begins this year on November 17 in Jaipur with a T20I against New Zealand and concludes on June 19 in the national capital with a T20I against South Africa. The ODI series between India and the West Indies will begin next year on February 6, taking place in Ahmedabad. The second and third games will be held in Jaipur and Kolkata on February 9 and 12. Sri Lanka will play two Tests and three T20Is, whereas South Africa will play five T20Is in ten days.
“We have kept 14 T20Is because we have another T20 World Cup in Australia in a year’s time and we need to have adequate matches before the big event,” a BCCI official said.
The four Test matches for the New Zealand series will be contested in Kanpur and Mumbai, while the traditional format will be held in Bengaluru and Mohali. According to the rotation method, the 17 white-ball games scheduled will be played in the majority of the cities. Jaipur, Ranchi, Lucknow, Vizag, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Cuttack, Trivandrum, Chennai, Rajkot, Delhi have all got matches
This will be followed by the T20Is with the opening game being played on February 15 in Cuttack. The second and third games will be played on February 18 and 20 in Vizag and Trivandrum. The India-Sri Lanka series gets underway with two Tests in Bengaluru (Feb 25 to Mar 1) and Mohali (March 5 to 9). There will be three T20Is played after that with games in Mohali (March 13), Dharamshala (March 15) and Lucknow (March 18). This will be followed by a five-match T20I series between India and South Africa. The games will be played in Chennai (June 9), Bengaluru (June 12), Nagpur (June 14), Rajkot (June 17) and Delhi (June 19). The Apex Council also decided that the decision to organize U-16 tournaments will be taken post the Under 19 tournaments and taking into account the COVID-19 situation.