England to visit four new Indian venues

England will visit four new international venues on their tour of India either side of Christmas. Pune, Ranchi, Rajkot and Dharamsala will all hold ODIs for the first time.

The Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium in Dharamsala, which has hosted several IPL matches, has already been approved by the ICC as an international venue but the three other stadiums are awaiting approval: the Subrata Roy Stadium in Pune, the Khandheri Cricket Ground in Rajkot and the Jharkhand State Cricket Association Stadium in Ranchi.

England play four Tests against India from November to January at Kolkata, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Nagpur before two T20s, one of which will be staged at Pune with Rajkot, Ranchi and Dharamsala staging an ODI each for the five-match series.

Before England tour, India begin their home season with a two-Test series against New Zealand in August, followed by two T20s. Each of the four venues chosen for that series are located in southern India, as a result of the monsoon season being at its peak in the rest of the country. The Tests will be held in Hyderabad and Bangalore, the T20 matches in Chennai and Visakhapatnam.

The home season concludes with a four-Test series against Australia between February and March 2013.

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