Virat Kohli reckons that test cricket in India should be played only at five fixed venues, rather than the test matches being allotted to various state cricket associations on a rotational basis.
Test cricket is considered to be a dying format of the game at the moment as people are favouring the shorter formats more. Kohli is of the belief that there has to be a little bit of tradition attached to test cricket.
According to Kohli, when you have fixed test venues, the touring teams know the places where they will be travelling and they will know what kind of atmosphere they will have to deal with at those venues.
If they know that it will be a full house at this particular venue or that particular venue, it already poses a challenge in front of them when they are taking the flight to India.
Kohli insists that the same thing happens with India as well when they tour countries which have fixed venues. They know where the pitch will be challenging or where the stadium will be totally full.
“Teams coming to India should know that we are going to play at these five centers, these are the kind of people who will come to watch… crowds. That becomes a challenge already when you’re leaving the shores.” Kohli said at the conclusion of the Ranchi test match which India won by an innings.
“we go to any place, we know we have four Test matches at these venues, this is what the pitches are going to do, it is going to be full stadium, the crowd behind the team.” Kohli added.
Cricket Australia (CA) has adopted this kind of system where they host the test matches during the Australian summer at fixed test venues. If it’s a 5-match test series, the test matches generally take place at Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Melbourne and Sydney.
