India-SA T-20I: Nagpur dropped from roster

Nagpur, March 2

Here is some bad news for city cricket fans. They will miss the thrill of Twenty-20 cricket in June as the

Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has made slight changes in the schedule of India vs South Africa T20Is. The five-match series is will happen right after the Indian Premier League (IPL) in India. South Africa were supposed to play these five matches in Chennai, Bengaluru, Nagpur, Rajkot and Delhi but now the series will kick off from Cuttack. They moving to Visakhapatnam, Delhi, Rajkot and Chennai. Bengaluru and Nagpur have been dropped from the roster.

In this regard when contacted senior official of Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA) he conformed the development but failed to explain why BCCI has dropped Nagpur from the roster. “ We come to know about this development only today. At present I can't tell you why BCCI has taken this decision”, he said. It can be mentioned here that in last two years Nagpur has neither witnessed any international match. The last international match was played between India and Bangladesh at VCA Jamtha on November 19, 2019 in which India managed to beat the opponents by 30 runs. Indian pacer Deepak Chahar had created history in the match by becoming the first Indian to take a hat-trick in Twenty20 Internationals. Apart from that, he also took figures of 6/7 in 3.2 overs and it gave him the best figures by a bowler in the format. The haul of 6/7 is a new world record in Twenty20 Internationals, breaking the previous record of 6/8 which was set by Sri Lanka's Ajantha Mendis against Zimbabwe in Hambantota. The first T20 international was played in Nagpur in 2009 between India and Sril Lanka. Since then, Nagpur has hosted 12 T20Is.