Former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly has reacted to the ongoing debate of not allocating Test matches to Eden Gardens for the forthcoming Border-Gavaskar Test series. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had announced the schedule and venues for the India-Australia 2027 Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
While Guwahati's Barsapara Stadium has been awarded a Test, after last hosting South Africa in November 2025, Kolkata's Eden Gardens has again missed out. In fact, the famous ground hasn't hosted a single Test between the two teams ever since India's monumental win back in 2001.
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The five-match Test series will be played from Jan. to March 2027. It begins in Nagpur on Jan. 21, followed by the second Test in Chennai from Jan. 29 to Feb. 2. After an eight-day break, the third Test will be played in Guwahati from Feb. 11 to 15. Ranchi will host the fourth Test from Feb. 19 to 23, and the series finale will begin in Ahmedabad on Feb. 27.
The absence of Eden Gardens and Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium from the high-profile series sparked strong reactions on social media.
Ganguly has presented his views on this. Speaking to Sportstar, the former President of the BCCI said, “It's always great to have big Test matches at Eden Gardens,” Ganguly said.
“As CAB president and a former player, I would love to host Tests here, but we already had the South Africa Test, followed by T20 World Cup matches and IPL fixtures. Stadiums across India are very good, and it's important that games also go to other venues.”
Ganguly is the current president of Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB). Joining the conversation was former Indian cricketer Venkatapathy Raju. His views were slightly different from those of Ganguly.
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“In our time, we had five main Test venues — Kolkata, Kanpur, Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai — and they had their own charm. I think they should go back to that format,” the former spinner said. “Hosting T20Is and ODIs is fine, but Test cricket at these venues is special. Playing at Eden Gardens is a privilege because of the atmosphere and crowd support,” Raju added.
BCCI follows a rotation policy under which every state association gets to host Test matches. According to this rotation policy, Nagpur (last Test vs Australia in 2023), Chennai (last Test vs Bangladesh in 2024), Ranchi (last Test vs England in 2024) and Ahmedabad (last Test vs Australia in 2023) have all received fixtures for 2027.
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