Australia to play Test in India

It’s official. Cricket Australia has agreed to BCCI’s request to play two Test matches during their tour of India in October this year. The original itinerary of seven ODIs is now changed to two Tests and three ODIs from October 2 to 24.

Australia to play Test in India

The reason for the change, it is believed, is for India to maintain its No.1 ranking. From a cricketing perspective, the series will serve as match practice for Australia ahead of the Ashes in their summer. After their Tests against Pakistan in July, Australia’s next Test tournament was the home series against Sri Lanka followed by the Ashes.

For India, it is only imperative that the No.1 ranked Test team plays more Tests than anyone else. Earlier this year, the originally scheduled five-ODI series against South Africa was converted to a two-Test, three-ODI series. When India attained the No.1 Test ranking last year, South Africa were at No.2 and both teams played a meagre six Tests during the calendar year 2009. Moreover Ricky Ponting had publicly expressed concern over pointless ODI tournaments after last year’s Ashes. The two-Test series will provide an opportunity to experiment with some of the upcoming Indian limited overs talent at the Test level ahead of the subsequent series against the Kiwis and then the tour of South Africa before the World Cup.

The darker side to this is the venues where the Tests are scheduled. Australia will play in Mohali and Bangalore while New Zealand will do so in Ahmedabad, Kanpur and Mumbai. While Mumbai and Bangalore (and Mohali, to a certain extent) can be expected to draw in the crowds, choice of the other two venues might just compound the possibility of dull matches on lifeless wickets. Perhaps the brightest side to this is that there will not be any match in Nagpur, which almost threatened to take the life out of Test cricket in India, earlier this year, until Kolkata came to the rescue.