MUMBAI (AP) — England will play test cricket at Dharamsala for the first time in next year’s tour of India.
The city, which is home to Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and sits on the edge of the Himalayas, plays host to the fifth and final test from March 7. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Tuesday published the fixtures for the tour, which runs from Jan. 25 to March 11.
England is already visiting the picturesque venue during this year's Cricket World Cup — playing Bangladesh in October — but will be back for a week-long stay in the new year.
Many of India’s best-known venues, including the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, Delhi’s Feroz Kotla Stadium and Eden Gardens in Kolkata, do not appear on the itinerary, while there is no game at Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium, the biggest cricket venue in the world.
Instead, England will play the first test at Hyderabad (Jan. 25-29) and the second at Vizag (Feb. 2-6). The third test will be at Rajkot (Feb. 15-19) and the fourth at Ranchi (Feb. 23-27) before the series finishes at Dharamsala (March 7-11).
There are two sets of back-to-back tests, but the schedule also allows for extended breaks after the second and fourth matches.
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