India’s Test and ODI captain Shubman Gill will play for Punjab against Sikkim in the Vijay Hazare Trophy on Saturday at Jaipur’s Jaipuria Vidyalaya ground.
The match will be held behind closed doors, leaving fans disappointed as the venue has no seating arrangements for spectators.
Last week, more than 20,000 fans gathered at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium to watch Rohit Sharma in action for Mumbai. However, Punjab’s fixture will not enjoy similar attendance since the Jaipuria ground, located inside a school campus, restricts access to BCCI delegates and students only.
Recently, when Yashasvi Jaiswal played for Mumbai against Goa at the same venue, hundreds of fans waited outside the premises, climbing walls to catch a glimpse of the star batter. With no live streaming available, cricket lovers will miss watching Gill’s return to competitive cricket after a short break.
DD Kumawat, convenor of the ad-hoc committee for the Rajasthan Cricket Association, explained that fixtures were scheduled well in advance and could not be shifted to the SMS Stadium. He added that the stadium is unavailable due to an upcoming event from January 6.
Not just Gill, India’s T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav will also feature at the same venue when Mumbai faces Himachal Pradesh on January 6. Jaipur currently has four BCCI-affiliated grounds, but only SMS Stadium offers a large-scale seating capacity.
This is not the first closed-door match of the tournament. The opener between Delhi and Andhra, featuring Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant, was also played without spectators at the BCCI Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru due to safety restrictions.
