India-Austalia T20 series to kick off at Mohali stadium

Six months after hosting Virat Kohli’s 100th Test match, IS Bindra PCA International Stadium will host the first match of the India-Australia T20I series on September 20 later this month. This will be the 45th International match that will be played in the stadium.
While the India-Sri Lanka first Test match saw the stadium hosting 50 percent of fans due to Covid-19 restrictions, the T20I match is expected to see a full crowd. It will be the first match which will see the newly elected executive committee of PCA under new president and former Indian U-19 player Gulzar Inder Chahal. “Punjab Cricket Association is ready to host the first T20I match of the three-match India-Australia T20I series. We are looking towards hosting the match with a 100 percent capacity and the PCA president and other members of the PCA Executive committee will have a meeting on Tuesday this week to oversee the preparations of the match,” said Deepak Sharma, CEO, Punjab Cricket Association, while speaking with The Indian Express.
While the stadium has hosted five T20Is, India has played three T20I at the stadium and won all the three T20I matches at the stadium. In 2009, the Indian team scored a six-wicket win over Sri Lanka while the Indian team scored a six-wicket win over Australia at Mohali to enter the semi-final of the ICC World T20 in 2016. In 2019, the Indian team scored a seven-wicket win over South Africa in the fifth T20I hosted the stadium. With ticket sales yet to start for the match, cricket fans in the Tricity and the region are eagerly waiting for the sales to start.
“While Virat Kohli’s 100th Test match at the IS Bindra PCA International Stadium saw fans being allowed to watch the match only 2-3 days prior to the match, most of the fans could not watch cricketing action at the stadium due to the 50 per cent tickets on offer and poor planning of the ticket sales. The T20I matches at the stadium have always seen a rush of cricket fans and we are eagerly waiting for the ticket sales to open. We also hope that ticket prices will not be priced steeply,” said Himanshu Dhamija, a student at Chandigarh Group of Colleges, Landran, Mohali.