Lucknow to be back as Test centre, set to host New Zealand

NEW DELHI: Lucknow will be hosting its first Test match in nearly 28 years when the New Zealand team comes to India after the T20 World Cup in UAE in November. This will be the new Atal Bihari Vajpayee Stadium’s first Test match after the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association (UPCA) opened it for first-class cricket in 2016.
The match against Sri Lanka at KDS Babu Stadium in January 1994 remains the only Test that Lucknow has hosted.TOI has learned that BCCI has finalized the venues for the two Test matches against New Zealand. The other Test match will be played at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
The Board feels that Lucknow is going to be a major cricketing centre, sources said. With two new IPL teams set to come next year, Lucknow is believed to be one of the likely host cities besides Ahmedabad.
“The stadium has good facilities and a capacity of nearly 70,000. That’s a good deal for any IPL franchise. Like Ahmedabad, it’s important to give Lucknow exposure to marquee international matches before the IPL teams are finalized. Lucknow was also shortlisted as a venue for the T20 World Cup had it happened in India,” a senior BCCI official told TOI.
The Test series will be preceded by the three-match T20I series, which is likely to begin in the last week of November.
The turnaround time from the home series against New Zealand and the first Test in Johannesburg in the third week of December will be around 10 days. The Board has kept in mind the need for bubble-to-bubble transfer.
Sri Lanka coming for two Tests, three T20Is in Feb-March
The Sri Lankan team will come to India for a two-Test series and three T20Is in February-March after the Indian team comes back from the full tour of South Africa in late January.
The two Tests will be part of the World Test Championship.
As of now, Mumbai has been marked to host one of the Test matches. The board will finalise the schedule of the entire domestic season soon.