New Zealand to kick off Indian excursion with Kanpur

BCCI has announced the schedule for the home series against the visiting New Zealand team who will travel to India for a month-long tour to and will participate in three test matches followed by five One-day clashes. Green Park, which last hosted a test match in 2009, will host the first Test against the Kiwis whereas the Eden Gardens of Kolkata will host the second test. The Test series will conclude in Holkar Stadium, Indore. There were speculations that the Eden test might be a pink ball test but the BCCI has put an end to all the rumours with an official press release.

After wrapping up the Test matches both the teams will don the coloured clothing and will play the white ball matches. Dharamsala, Delhi, Mohali, Ranchi and Visakhapatnam will host the one-day encounters. All the matches will be day matches and no day-night matches are scheduled which comes as a surprise.

New Zealand team last travelled to India in the year 2012 to play two matches test series followed by two T20I. Indian team white washed the Kiwis in the test series. The Indian team continued their track record in T20 series and again suffered a defeat in the shortest format of the game.

The series also marked the comeback of Yuvraj Singh in international cricket after a period of almost one year. The veteran batsman V.V.S. Laxman decided to retire just before the start of test series which gave birth to a small controversy.

Indian team too travelled to New Zealand in the first month of the year 2014 only to lose the five Matches ODI series by 4-0 followed by a loss and a draw in the test series.

The test series will only be the second home series for test Captain Virat Kohli.

Here is the schedule for NZ’s tour of India 2016:

Match                     Date                                                Venue

First test              September 22-26                        Green Park Stadium, Kanpur

Second test         September 30 – October 4              Eden Gardens, Kolkata

Third test             October 8-12                                 Holkar stadium, Indore

First ODI             October 16                                  HPCA Stadium, Dharamsala

Second ODI         October 19                                  Feroz Shah Kotla, New Delhi

Third ODI            October 23                                  PCA Stadium, Mohali

Fourth ODI           October 26                               JSCA International stadium, Ranchi

Fifth ODI              October 29                                    DR. YSR Stadium, Vizag

 

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