The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) recently announced the schedule and venues for the 2027 Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) as part of its 2026-27 home international season.

The five-match Test series between India and Australia is slated to run from January 21 to March 3, 2027. Notably, traditional venues like Eden Gardens (Kolkata), Wankhede Stadium (Mumbai), and M. Chinnaswamy Stadium (Bengaluru) were not allotted any Test matches for this high-profile series.

Instead, Guwahati's Barsapara Stadium will host its first-ever BGT Test, following its successful Test debut against South Africa in November 2025.

The exclusion of major centres led to a social media furor. Sourav Ganguly, President of the Cricket Association of Bengal, also reacted to Eden Gardens missed out on staging a Test match against Australia.

"It's always great to have big Test matches back at Eden Gardens. As the president of the CAB and a former player, I would like to host Test matches here, but we already hosted the Test against South Africa, and then there were T20 World Cup games and Indian Premier League fixtures," Ganguly told Sportstar.

"But stadiums all around India are very good. I am happy to see a Test match in Chennai, and then there are matches in Guwahati and Ranchi, where the facilities are excellent. As much as you would like to host matches at Eden, it's important to understand that games also need to go to other venues," he added.

Meanwhile, former spinner Venkatapathy Raju advocated for a return to India's traditional "Big Five" Test centres: Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, and Kanpur.

While Raju supported spreading limited-overs matches (ODIs and T20Is) to smaller cities, he argued that the traditional format of the game belongs in these historic hubs to maintain its stature.

"Back in our time, we had five Test venues - Kolkata, Kanpur, Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai - and they had their own charm. I think they should go back to that format again," Raju stated.

"Hosting T20Is and ODIs is fine, but playing at these five Test centres is always special. Playing at a venue like Eden is a privilege because of the huge crowd support," he remarked.

Apart from Guwahati, Nagpur, Chennai, Ranchi and Ahmedabad will host Test matches against Australia next year.

(With PTI Inputs)