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The Dr. YS Rajashekar Reddy ACA – VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam is the venue for the second Test between India and England. The match begins on Friday and India are looking to bounce back after suffering a rather surprising defeat in the first Test in Hyderabad. India had taken a 190-run lead in the first innings and reduced England to a score of 163/5 in the second, with their senior batsmen Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow and Ben Stokes back in the hut without troubling the scorers too much. .
However, Ollie Pope led an incredible England rearguard performance, scoring 196 himself as the visitors set a target of 231 for India to chase. Debutant Tom Hartley, who had a forgettable outing in India’s first innings, ended up breaking through the hosts’ batting line-up and finished with figures of 7/62. England ended up winning the match by 28 runs after being on the brink of an innings defeat at one point. The result sets up a tantalizing contest for the rest of the series with India for once being challenged at home.
The YSR ACA-VDCA Stadium is a relatively new venue in Indian cricket, particularly as far as Test matches are concerned. It has hosted 10 ODIs since 2005 and four T20Is since 2016, but only two Test matches so far.
Past Tests in Visakhapatnam
One of the two matches that have been played in the stadium was against England. They were the first Test matches played in Visakhapatnam from 17 to 21 November 2016. India captain Virat Kohli won the toss and decided to bat first. They got off to a shaky start with openers Murali Vijay and KL Rahul being dismissed in the first five overs, but centuries from Kohli (167) and Cheteshwar Pujara (119) and half-centuries from Ravichandran Ashwin (58) helped India score. of 455. Ashwin then took a five-wicket haul as England were bowled out for 255 and India ended up setting a target of 405 for the visitors to chase in their second innings. Ashwin and Jayant Yadav took three wickets each while Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammed Shami picked two as England were bowled out for 158 and India won the match by 246 runs.
The second match came in 2019 and marked a career-defining change of roles for the current Indian captain. Rohit Sharma had been unable to replicate his incredible success in limited overs cricket in the longer format until then, when India finally decided to use him as an opener, the role that made him one of the best in the world in the shorter formats. Rohit made an immediate impact, to say the least, in what was the first match of the series against South Africa. He shared a mammoth 317-run opening stand with Mayank Agarwal, scoring 176 in just 244 balls. Meanwhile, Agarwal scored 215 for 371 and this allowed India to declare with a score of 502/7. South Africa gave a strong response with Dean Elgar (160) and Quinton de Kock (111) scoring centuries and captain Faf du Plessis making 55. They were all out for 431 and Ashwin took seven wickets. In the second Indian innings, Rohit became the first player to score two centuries in his first Test opener. He scored 127 off 149 balls as India declared with a score of 323/4, thus setting a target of 395 for South Africa. The Proteas were bowled out for 191 with Shami taking five wickets and Jadeja taking four and India won by 203 runs.