India vs Australia 2020-21: Sydney Confirmed to Host New Year’s Test at The SCG

CA officials deemed the threat of a COVID19 outbreak in the city had subsided enough to allow the match to proceed.

Sydney Cricket Ground will host the third Test between India and Australia starting January 7. Cricket Australia (CA) confirmed this after India beat Australia by eight wickets in the Boxing Day Test on Tuesday. This development took place after Cricket Australia officials deemed the threat of a COVID19 outbreak in the city had subsided enough to allow the match to proceed.

An outbreak of coronavirus in Sydney’s northern beaches before Christmas had put CA officials on high alert, and the Melbourne Cricket Ground was placed on standby to potentially host back-to-back Test matches.

The MCG had not hosted two Tests in a summer since December 1981, but the ground where Australia lost this summer’s Boxing Day Test by eight wickets will now instead turn its attention to a glut of KFC BBL matches in January.

Complicating the hosting decision was the closure of the Queensland border to anyone coming from the greater Sydney area, putting events, broadcast and media contingents in limbo, as well as the Australia and India players.

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