Bengaluru to host India-South Africa limited-overs series in March

Women’s CricZone can confirm. The matches are going to be played at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru with the Proteas squad scheduled to arrive at the end of this month. South Africa will play five ODIs and three T20Is.

“You heard it right. Bengaluru will host the India-South Africa matches. The matches will be played in M Chinnaswamy Stadium,” a top BCCI official confirmed exclusively to this website on Wednesday (February 17). “The team selection is expected to happen in the next week.”

"I can tell you now is that the Proteas conducted their COVID19 tests today," a Cricket South Africa official told this website on Wednesday.

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It is also learnt that the South Africa team will arrive in Mumbai on February 25. They will serve a six-quarantine in the city before flying to Bengaluru. The Indian players are expected to report in Bengaluru by the start of next week. The series is expected to start on March 10.

The series marks the return of international cricket for India for the first time since the T20 World Cup final in Australia last year. The Women in Blue had to cancel their tour of England last year due to the travel restrictions because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The only top-level cricket India played was in the Women’s T20 Challenge which was held in UAE alongside men’s IPL.

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The series was earlier scheduled to happen at the Greenfield Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala but had to shift it from there after the state cricket association wrote to BCCI about their inability to host the series. In a statement, KCA said that the stadium authorities have allocated the ground for an army recruitment rally at the same time as the scheduled series, without informing the association which prompted the state association to drop plans to host the series.

“KCA had the full support of the Kerala government and the Sports Minister, but schedule clash became the hurdle in hosting the matches. If the state government doesn’t intervene, the Greenfield Stadium will soon become unusable,” KCA president Sajan Varghese and secretary Sreejith Nair jointly said in the statement.