A busy international schedule awaits the Indian team in the coming home season with 13 Test matches, eight One-Day Internationals and three T20 Internationals pencilled in by the BCCI.
Rajkot, Vizag, Pune, Dharamsala, Ranchi and Indore, upgraded as Test centres in November last year, will host five-day matches for the first time, BCCI secretary Ajay Shirke said in a statement.
The new centres would also host Tests this season against the visiting New Zealand, England, Australia and Bangladesh, the BCCI announced after the meeting of its Tour Programmes and Fixtures Committee here today.
Australia are to visit India in February-March, 2017 to play four Test matches while Bangladesh is slated to play a one-off Test match in India for the first time since the country got Test status.
Also Read
The three Tests against New Zealand would be played at Indore, Kanpur and Kolkata while Dharamsala, Delhi, Mohali, Ranchi and Vizag are to host the five ODIs against the Kiwis.
Five Test matches against England would be held at Mohali, Rajkot, Mumbai, Vizag and Chennai, with the ODIs to be held at Pune, Cuttack and Kolkata and the three T20 games scheduled at Bengaluru, Nagpur and Kanpur.
(REOPENS BOM 3)
The domestic cricket season will kick off in September with the Duleep Trophy, which was not held in 2015-16 season. The tournament is set to be played under lights with pink ball for the first time.
This is being done to help Indian cricketers, all of whom are expected to take part, become familiar with playing under lights with the pink coloured ball, ahead of playing Test cricket in these conditions at home during the packed season.
Chhattisgarh has been added to the Ranji Trophy schedule for the first time.
"This translates into 1,882 playing days between September 2016 to March 2017," Shirke said.
"I welcome the new Test venues hosting this prestigious format of cricket and their arrival will take Test match cricket, to every corner of the country," said BCCI President Anurag Thakur.
"We are equally excited about the domestic season as we will be playing the Duleep trophy with the pink ball under lights and take this opportunity to welcome Chhattisgarh, who will play Ranji trophy for the first time."
BCCI secretary Shirke noted that the advance announcement of international match staging centres for the coming season will give them enough time to buckle up for the task ahead.
"Some of the best teams of world cricket are coming to play in India this season and we are excited to announce the schedule well ahead of time. This gives the staging associations and the BCCI sufficient time to prepare and present one of the most memorable cricketing seasons for our fans," said Shirke.