Kolkata: Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) president and former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly guaranteed that the iconic Eden Gardens in Kolkata would be ready to host the second ODI between Virat Kohli’s Indian team and the Australia on the 21st of September.
Ganguly, after a pitch inspection on Thursday evening assured in an interaction with reporters, “The rain has stopped. The ground is in good shape and will be ready for the ODI.”
It has been raining for quite some time now in the city but the weather, surprisingly has been on the brighter and sunnier side which has delighted Eden Gardens’ pitch curator Sujan Mukherjee, who was happy in preparing the pitch.
“Everything is fine now. It’s been about a week that it has not rained. I’m very, very happy with the pitch preparation which is going on full swing for the September 21 ODI. It will be a good sporting wicket as usual,” said Mukherjee as quoted in The Times of India.
He also added, “However I don’t have control on the weather.”
The Indian team has been in scintillating form at the moment as they completed a 9-0 clean sweep across all formats against Sri Lanka back in the island nation. One of the major highlights of the tour was that every one in the team stood up at one point or the other. Thus, the Indian team would be upbeat and high on confidence as they take on Australia in a five-match ODI series and 3 T20’s starting from the 17th of September.
The Tamil Nadu Cricket Association confirmed on Wednesday that the tickets for the India-Australia series would be sold from the 10th of September.
Australia slip in Test rankings despite win
The Australians drew the two-match Test series 1-1 against hosts Bangladesh who had surprisingly beaten them in the first test match.
But despite a win in the second Test, the Australians have slipped to the fifth position in the Test rankings.
Steve Smith’s men needed to win the series anyhow to hold onto that fourth position in the rankings as they begun with 100 points entering into the first Test match.
They now are at the fifth position with 97 points which is equal to the fourth placed New Zealand, who are ahead on decimal points.
India nonetheless continued to top the rankings and their 3-0 Test series win against Sri Lanka further boosted their position. Virat Kohli’s men currently have 125 rating points.