India vs New Zealand: Indore gears up to host its first ever Test in upcoming series

Indore: The Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association (MPCA) is gearing up to host the first ever Test match in the city and have expedited the preparations.

As per the schedule announced yesterday, India will play the third Test against New Zealand at the Holkar stadium here, which has a capacity to accommodate 28,000 spectators, beginning October 8.

The two teams will face each other for the first time in any format at the Holkar stadium.

"After getting hints of holding the Test match, we started preparations of it. But after the match fixture, we have expedited it (the preparations)," MPCA secretary Milind Kanmadikar said.

"We have to rev up some facilities for spectators and make slight change in the stadium," he said.

The last time, the two teams had played here, was on December 15, 1988 when the Dilip Vengsarkar side had defeated the Kiwis, who were captained by John Wright, by 53 runs in an ODI at the Nehru stadium.

So far, India has remained unbeaten at the Holkar stadium as they have won all the four ODIs played there.

India had defeated South Africa by 22 runs in the last match played on October 14 last year.