Lucknow: It will be a historical day for all Lucknowites on November 6th when they will witness first ever Twenty 20 cricket match to be played at Ekana stadium which is ready to host India Vs West Indies international game.
The city of Nawabs is set to host its first international cricket match in over two decades as India host West Indies for a T20I at the city’s new Ekana Stadium during the Caribbean outfit’s full tour from October.
India are set to host the Windies for two Tests, five One-Day Internationals and three Twenty20 Internationals, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced on Tuesday (September 4).
The tour, which will be staged between October 4 and November 11, 2018, begins with a two-Test series, the first of which will be played at Rajkot. Hyderabad will play host to the second Test that will be played from October 12.
The five-match ODI series will commence from October 21 with Guwahati, Pune, Indore, Mumbai and Thiruvananthapuram decided as the venues.
Lucknow’s Ekana Stadium to host its first international cricket match after 24 years:
Windies’ 37-day long tour will end with the three-match T20I series that will be held in Kolkata, Lucknow, and Chennai respectively. This will be the first international game to be played in Lucknow’s 50,000-seater Ekana International Cricket Stadium that has so far hosted five domestic cricket matches since it was inaugurated in 2016 including the 2017-18 Duleep Trophy final between India Red and India Blue.
India will play two Tests, five ODIs and three T20Is against West Indies. The tour will kick-off with the first Test which starts in Rajkot from October 4.
The 50,000-seater Ekana Stadium has so far hosted only domestic games. It was earmarked to host an ODI against New Zealand in 2017. The game, though, had to be moved to Kanpur due to pending infrastructure work.
Windies have announced their squad for the two-Test series that will be led by Jason Holder and has the likes of Shannon Gabriel, Shai Hope and Kraigg Brathwaite to name a few.
India are currently on their tour to England which ends with the final Test at the Oval on September 11. They will then head over to the UAE for the six-team Asia Cup that starts from September 15 and runs upto September 28. India play their first game on 18 September.
India vs Windies, Tour Itinerary
First Test – October 4-8, Rajkot
Second Test – October 12-16, Hyderabad
First ODI – October 21, Guwahati
Second ODI – October 24, Indore
Third ODI – October 27, Pune
Fourth ODI – October 29, Mumbai
Fifth ODI – November 1, Thiruvananthapuram
First T20I – November 4, Kolkata
Second T20I – November 6, Lucknow
Third T20I – November 11, Chennai.
The last time an international match was held in Lucknow way back in 1994 when India beat Sri Lanka in a Test match at Babu Stadium.
