The Eden Gardens and Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium have not been allotted any Test match during the forthcoming international calendar for the 2026-27 season at home.
The home season will include five Tests in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, nine ODIs and eight T20Is, with Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Guwahati, Ahmedabad and Ranchi being the only centres to host two games each.
Nagpur will host the opener in the Test series against Australia from January 21. The other matches will be held in Chennai (January 21 start), Guwahati (February 11), Ranchi (February 19) and Ahmedabad (February 27).
None of the traditional Test centres, except for Chennai and Ahmedabad, have been allotted a Test match. While Eden Gardens last hosted a Test match against Australia in the historic 2001 series, Mumbai’s last was against New Zealand in November 2024. Wankhede, which turned 50 last year, hasn’t hosted an India-Australia Test since 2004.
Calcutta did host a Test match against South Africa last season, but so did Guwahati. Hence, the BCCI cannot concur that rotation policy was followed in allotting games to the various centres.
Traditional venues are favoured all over the world while hosting Tests against important teams. However, the BCCI does not seem to believe in such logic. Perhaps, the clout the men in power hold plays a decisive role in allotting Tests to their favoured venues.
In 2019, then-captain Virat Kohli had strongly advocated for limiting Test cricket in India to just five permanent “strong Test centres” to maintain the format’s popularity and ensure consistent crowds and pitch quality. However, none in the BCCI seemed to have taken note of that advice.
Former spinner Ravichandran Ashwin echoed similar sentiments last year, saying that having standard Test centres would help Indian players become more familiar with the conditions.
Sources in the Cricket Association of Bengal confirmed to The Telegraph that there was no communication with the BCCI on the proposed renovation at Eden Gardens after IPL 2026.
Eden Gardens will only host an ODI against Zimbabwe in the entire season. The same applies for Mumbai.
The four teams touring are the West Indies (three ODIs and five T20Is from September 27 to October 17), Sri Lanka (three ODIs and three T20Is from December 13-27), Zimbabwe (three ODIs from January 3-9) and Australia. Zimbabwe’s visit will be their first for a bilateral series in India since 2002.
Bengaluru will return to hosting international cricket for the first time since the stampede last June, which led to the loss of 11 lives outside Chinnaswamy Stadium following RCB’s IPL triumph last season. The ground will host the fifth T20I against West Indies on October 17 and the second ODI against Sri Lanka on December 16.
