Test matches being wasted, BCCI needs to take them to traditional venues

New Delhi: Through the last two decades as Indian cricket has grown far and wide some prominent voices including Ravi Shastri have batted for Test cricket to be taken to smaller venues across India so that the longest format doesn't die.

Despite the large number of venues being added to BCCI Test roster over the last decade, and Tests being shifted there, the interest among fans thronging the venues has waned.

Former India captain and one of India's greatest batsmen Virat Kohli made it clear in 2019. After getting disappointed by the low turnout he called on the BCCI to keep Test matches at traditional venues.

But the BCCI hasn't taken any heed. The Test matches against Australia in early 2027 will be played at Nagpur, Chennai, Guwahati, Ahmedabad and Ranchi.

Only Chennai is part of the list of traditional Test venues which also included Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore (now Bengaluru) and Kanpur. Mohali was added in the early 1990s.

The Board believes that this is due to the rotation policy. But what sense does such kind of rotation make when the India-Australia rivalry, the best in world cricket today, is not played in venues where there is large interest for Test cricket. Taking cricket to smaller venues is fine through the shorter formats, especially T20 cricket. But Test cricket has failed to excite crowds in smaller venues.

There are some exceptions like Indore, for example. It helps that the stadium in Indore is inside the city.

But most new venues are far from the city like Nagpur and Visakhapatnam and it is hard for crowds to fill up the stadia on all days. In most cases, they are not even at 50 per cent capacity even on a single day.

The current schedule of the Australia Test series shows some parochialism. Ahmedabad is the home of ICC chief Jay Shah, who vacated the secretary's post when he moved to ICC. Enough has been said about how Ahmedabad is getting far too many important games. Guwahati is the home of BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia and hosted a Test match against South Africa as recently as November 2025.

Ranchi, which hosted its first Test in 2017, against Australia, will be hosting its fourth Test. The previous one was in February, 2024, against England.

Compare these venues to others like Kolkata. The Eden Gardens, incidentally has not hosted a Test against Australia after the famous one in 2001 when VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid played out-of-the-world knocks to help India come back from behind and win. The last time Eden hosted England, the other team of Big Three, was in 2012.

Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai last hosted Australia as far back as 2004.

Chennai will be hosting Australia after 14 years. It last hosted the Aussies in 2013.

The advantage these traditional venues have over the new ones is that they have a history of producing Test cricketers. More importantly, they are located in the heart of their respective cities. So crowds are definitely going to come and most of the crowd will be those who'd be regulars at watching long format games including domestic cricket.

India vs Australia 2027 Test series schedule: 

First Test: Jan 21 to 25 at Nagpur

Second Test: Jan 29 to Feb 2 at Chennai

Third Test: Feb 11 to Feb 15 at Guwahati

Fourth Test: Feb 19 to Feb 23 at Ranchi

Fifth Test: Feb 27 to Mar 03 at Ahmedabad

Tags : India, Australia, cricket, Kolkata, Eden Gardens, Mumbai, Wankhede Stadium