The first day of the much-awaited Test series between India and New Zealand at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru is delayed due to rain. Scheduled to kick off at 9:30, the first session was abandoned due to constant rain at 11:30 AM IST.
However, there is hope regarding Chinnaswamy’s famous drainage system, as the weather remains wet as usual. It includes a SubAir system that is able to extract about 10,000 litres of water per minute, making it easy to recover from rain. Officials have said that play could resume in about an hour after rain has stopped, which has fans waiting for updates on potential gameplay.
Persistent rainfall through the morning also led to a delay of the toss, which was initially planned for 9 a.m. There was very little crowd present on the field, but the few who came out had their spirits briefly lifted when they saw star players Virat Kohli and Yashasvi Jaiswal practicing indoors with assistant coach Abhishek Nayar.
The match is the first Test match out of the three, and both teams want to get off to a good start. India arrives at this series on the backdrop of a series victory against Bangladesh, where they emerged the better side by 2-0. On the other hand, New Zealand has recently been going through some difficult times during their tour to Sri Lanka and the home series against Australia this year.
Since the forecast is for rain to continue all day, both teams will be praying for the rain to stop so that they can display their skill set on the field. Cricket lovers still expect that, given the circumstances that have led to the postponement of the event, some cricket will be played on the first day of this interesting series.
