India reveal schedule for five-Test Australia tour

Australia will begin their Border-Gavaskar Trophy title defense in the hostile conditions of Nagpur, the site of an innings defeat on their last Test tour of India.

But several of the country's better known and traditional Test venues have missed out, with no Tests scheduled for any of Kolkata, Mumbai and Bengaluru.

Instead, Chennai, Guwahati, Ranchi and Ahmedabad are the other venues locked in for the five-match series by the BCCI, who revealed their schedule for India's 2026-27 home season for the men's side on Thursday.

Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2027 

 

First Test: January 21-25, VCA Stadium, Nagpur, 3pm AEDT

 

Second Test: January 29-February 2, MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai, 3pm AEDT

 

Third Test: February 11-15, ACA Stadium, Guwahati, 3pm AEDT

 

Fourth Test: February 19-23, JSCA International Stadium, Ranchi, 3pm AEDT

 

Fifth Test: February 27-March 3, Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad, 3pm AEDT

It will be Australia's first ever Test at Guwahati's Barsapara Cricket Stadium, a venue that has hosted only one previous Test, in November 2025 match between India and South Africa that the visitors won by a whopping 408 runs. Australia has previously played two T20I matches there, winning both.

And Ahmedabad, venue for the fifth Test, will hold plenty of fond memories for the Australian side, being the venue they defeated India in the 2023 ODI World Cup final.

The January 21 start date gives Pat Cummins' men just under a fortnight to rejuvenate after their last home Test against New Zealand in Sydney, which is scheduled for January 4-8.

The side will be back on a plane shortly after the final match of the heavyweight away assignment to take on England in the 150th anniversary Test at the MCG from March 11.

It has been over two decades since Australia's last Test series win on Indian shores in 2004-05, and winning an away series in India shapes as a legacy-defining goal for Cummins' side. 

India have shed their dominant home record in Test cricket in recent times, having lost five of the nine home Tests played since the start of the 2024-25 season.

Australia had begun the 2023 tour with high expectations, but slumped to an innings and 132-run defeat in the first Test in Nagpur, which has been retained as the venue for the upcoming series' opener.

Routed by the spin of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja for 177 and 91 either side of India's 400, it was their heaviest defeat in the 2023 series.

Ahmedabad, where the two sides had played out a draw three years ago, is the only other venue retained from that tour, which was played over four matches.

While it will be the first time Australia play a Test in the north-east Indian city of Guwahati, they return to Ranchi for a Test for the first time since 2017, a match that had resulted in a draw, with Peter Handscomb and Shaun Marsh batting more than four hours each to steer Australia to safety. 

Chennai, the most familiar of the five venues with a history of seven Tests between the two sides, has only produced one win for the Aussies in contrast to three losses. It had also seen a rare tie being played out in 1986.

While the recent history of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy has favoured India, Australia will be buoyed by their 3-1 win at home in 2024-25 that saw them reclaim the trophy for the first time in a decade.

The Australia tour caps a home international season for India that also includes white-ball limited-overs series against West Indies, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe.