The high profile Border-Gavaskar Trophy started at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Nagpur, on Thursday, 9 February.
It will be the 283rd Test match played in independent India, the 63rd Test played in Maharashtra, the state that has hosted the most Tests, and the 17th Test played in Nagpur.
The Australians have played two Test matches in the city. They won the 2004 match with a massive 342-run margin. In 2008, India managed to turn the tables and win the Test by a margin of 172 runs.
Australia just needs to draw one Test match in the series to qualify for the World Test Championship (WTC) final to be played in London at The Oval cricket stadium from 7 June to 11 this year.
India, on the other hand, needs to win at least two Tests in this series without losing any to qualify for the WTC final without having to keep an eye out for results of four other Tests being played between South Africa and West Indies (2) and New Zealand and Sri Lanka (2) between now and June.
As the teams crisscross across the country to play four Tests and three One-Day Internationals (ODIs) at various venues, here are a few stats about the cities and stadiums which have hosted international cricket matches in India until February 1, 2023.
Interactive Visualisation. Click on any state or use the search tab to explore venues across cities and formats.
Test Matches
Maharashtra has hosted the most number of Test matches held in India. Of the 62 Test matches played in the state, Mumbai has hosted 45. Wankhede (26) and Brabourne (18) have hosted the bulk of these matches, while today’s venue Nagpur has already hosted 16 Tests.
Tamil Nadu has hosted 43 Test matches. Of these, 34 have been played in the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, while nine Tests were played at the Nehru stadium in what was then called Madras. West Bengal stands in third place with the Eden Gardens in Kolkata hosting all 42 Test matches.
All the 34 Test matches played in Delhi were at the Feroz Shah Kotla, recently rechristened the Arun Jaitley Stadium. The Green Park Stadium in Kanpur has hosted 23 out of the 26 Tests played in Uttar Pradesh.
Coming to the remaining southern states, 24 Test matches have been held in Karnataka, all at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. Hyderabad in Telangana and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh have hosted eight and two Test matches each, while Kerala is yet to see Test cricket being played on its soil.
Also Read: Why the Australians are wary of ‘cerebral spinner’ R Ashwin
One-Day Internationals
When it comes to ODIs, Maharashtra, with a total of 72 matches, again takes the lead among the states. Gujarat (56) has hosted the second-most ODIs, with the Ahmedabad Motera (27), Rajkot (12) and Vadodara (10) sharing the bulk of these matches.
Among the southern states, Karnataka (26), Tamil Nadu (23), Telangana (21), Andhra Pradesh (16) and Kerala (14) together have hosted a total of 100 ODIs.
The Union Territory of Chandigarh has hosted 30 ODIs, while the eastern states of West Bengal, Odisha, Assam and Jharkhand have hosted 33, 21, 18 and 16 ODIs, respectively.
Also Read: TN’s Janani Narayanan among first 3 female Ranji umpires
T20 Internationals
In the shortest international format of the game, Maharashtra again tops the list with 26 games, with Nagpur and Wankhede hosting 13 and eight T20Is respectively. Uttar Pradesh (13), West Bengal (12), Gujarat (12) and Himachal Pradesh (11) have also been venues for T20Is.
Among the southern states, Karnataka has hosted the most number of games at eight. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala and Tamil Nadu have so far hosted merely 4, 3, 3, and 2 T20Is, respectively.
All other states have hosted less than 10 games in this format.
Also Read: The great survivor of Indian cricket admin: N Srinivasan
No cricket here
Millions of fervent fans adore the gentleman’s sport across India. It is ubiquitous not just in urban centres but across nooks and corners of the rural India too. Although at least one cricket match across these three formats has been played in 23 of the 28 states in India, the distribution has been highly skewed thus far.
The North-Eastern states of Agartala, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Meghalaya have not seen a single international cricket match. In terms of Test cricket, only 17 states have hosted at least one match, while major states like Kerala, Assam and Chhattisgarh are yet to host Team India in all whites.
