The 2023–24 home season calendar was released by the BCCI, and it includes England’s five-test tour of India in January–March 2023.
The 2023–24 home schedule, which also includes the historic ODI World Cup, was released by the BCCI on Wednesday. India will host Australia for a three-match ODI series in September to kick off the season and get ready for the prestigious fifty-over competition. Australia will extend their stay for a five-T20I series during the World Cup, which will be held in October and November of 2023.
There will only be one Test series during the entire season in January through March of 2020, when England will visit the nation for five games following Afghanistan’s three-match T20I tour earlier in the month. This time around, the series versus England is still one of the most eagerly anticipated in cricket due to the emergence of “Bazball,” a term that refers to England’s aggressive style in the longest format under captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum.
England will play five Test matches in India for the first time since the 2016–17 season during the 2023–24 tour; the previous trip saw the team play four Test matches. India had a 3-1 series victory. India also visited England for a five-Test series that year, and after the fifth Test was postponed, they returned with a 2-1 advantage. A year later, an English side led by Stokes was able to tie the series.
Surprisingly, England won’t be able to play the series in some of India’s legendary Test sites, like Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai. One theory is that the choice was made since the locations were already used for several of the important ODI World Cup matches this year. The lone home series in the longest format of the cricket season did not include a Test, which naturally left the supporters unsatisfied.
However, India’s top off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, who participated in all the aforementioned series against England, chose not to express his disappointment to the supporters. Ashwin noted that Vizag and Rajkot, two locations for the 2024 Tests, had also hosted England in their most recent five-Test tour of India, drawing comparisons to the 2016–17 tour.
“5 tests against England 2024: Hyderabad, Vizag, Rajkot, Ranchi, Dharamshala. 2016/17: Rajkot, Vizag, Mohali, Mumbai, Chennai. Vizag and Rajkot hold status quo. Should be a good series,” Ashwin tweeted.
