India surprises England with curious choice of test site

England will play Test cricket in Dharamsala for the first time on their tour of India next year. Photo: Getty Images/Hamish Blair

Ben Bazballers Stokes and Brandon McCallum face their biggest challenge yet: five tests in India's cricket backwaters.

The Cricket Control Board in India took the England and Wales Cricket Board by surprise when they suddenly announced the venues for next year's tour, which will not feature games in legendary cricket cities such as Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai, Bangalore or Calcutta or even recently. constructed Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, the largest cricket ground in the world.

Instead, England will play in Hyderabad (a city that has ever hosted eight Tests), Visakhapatnam (two Tests), Rajkot (two ), Ranchi (two) and Dharamshala (one). By comparison, England alone conducted 13 tests in the city of Mumbai.

England Tour India 2023-24

Some of these venues are believed to have been chosen as compensation as they do not host World Cup matches this year.

The ECB expects one of the five tests to be a day-night match. The 2021 Ahmedabad Test, where Joe Root scored five out of eight and England lost in two days, but it's not yet clear which one.

The tour is the biggest challenge for Stokes and McCallum, but it's also one of the toughest India tours England has ever been on.

The touring group from England is expected to take advantage of the two longer breaks between matches — between the second and third and fourth and fifth Tests — to leave India for a training camp in Dubai or Abu Dhabi. They will also likely be preparing for a tour outside of India, as England did with their Pakistan tour last year in the UAE.

Universal players from England are set to spend a lot of time in India. this winter, with their World Cup defense, the Five-Test tour, while some of them also have lucrative contracts with the Indian Premier League. Stokes is not expected to change his ODI exit to play in the World Cup, but Joe Root, Johnny Bairstow, Harry Brook and Mark Wood could spend up to six months in India.

Games in small Indian cities for fans from England it will be more difficult to travel in large numbers, which might be expected; as the last India tour took place during the Covid-19 pandemic, Barmi's army has not traveled to India on a test tour since 2016.