New Delhi: Having hosted a Test match against South Africa in late November, Guwahati’s Barsapara Stadium is once again among the five venues that will host the marquee series between India and Australia for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, the BCCI announced on Thursday.
The Indian board released the calendar for senior men’s team’s home season which will comprise five Tests, nine ODIs and eight T20Is. The ODI matches will certainly have a premium attached to it with the legendary white ball duo of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma expected to feature in all of them.
The series will start with the opening Test in Nagpur from January 21 followed by Chennai (January 29-February 2) with the third Test in Guwahati from February 11 to 15 after a eight-day gap. The fourth Test in Ranchi will be played between February 19-23 while the final Test in Ahmedabad will commence from February 27.
Among the five venues, as per rotation, Nagpur (last hosted Test in vs Australia 2023), Chennai (last hosted Test vs Bangladesh in 2024), Ranchi (last hosted Test vs England in 2024) have all got their due games. Ahmedabad hosted a Test match against the West Indies in October, 2025.
However, it wasn’t clear as to how Guwahati, which hosted India’s last home Test series (vs South Africa in November 2025) again features in rotation while Mumbai and Kolkata are not part of the marquee series. It is not known whether Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) or Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) didn’t want to host a Test versus Australia.
While the Australia Test series is the main attraction during the home season, India will also play host to West Indies, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe.
In fact, Zimbabwe will be playing in India in a bilateral series for the first time since 2002 when Sourav Ganguly was leading India.
The season will comprise 22 international matches in 17 cities with the West Indies tour of India, starting on September 27, 2026.
The tour will feature a three-match ODI series followed by a five-match T20I series.
The ODIs will be played in Trivandrum (September 27), Guwahati (September 30) and New Chandigarh (October 3), before the action shifts to the T20Is, which will be hosted across Lucknow (Oct 6), Ranchi (Oct 9), Indore (Oct 11), Hyderabad (Oct 14) and Bengaluru (Oct 17).
India will then host Sri Lanka in December 2026 for a white-ball series comprising three ODIs and as many T20Is. The ODI leg will be played in Delhi (December 13), Bengaluru (Dec 16) and Ahmedabad (Dec 19) while Rajkot (Dec 22), Cuttack (Dec 24) and Pune (Dec 27) will host the T20Is.
At the start of the new year, Zimbabwe will tour India for a three-match ODI series in January 2027. The matches will be held in Kolkata (Jan 3), Hyderabad (Jan 6) and Mumbai (Jan 9).
