Mohammad Azharuddin to be honored with a stand in Hyderabad Stadium ahead of 1st IND-WI T20I

The first T20I between India and the West Indies will be played today, December 6 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Hyderabad, Telangana. There will be two more matches played in the series, which will be followed by three ODI matches as well. Originally, Hyderabad was to host the third T20I but had to swap it with Mumbai as police expressed their inability to provide security at Wankhede.

The first T20I match will be the first under the new Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) regime of which former India captain Mohammad Azharuddin is the President. This will be the first-ever T20I game to be played at the RGIC Stadium, which has previously hosted 5 Tests and 6 ODIs previously. However, this game is more special to the HCA chief Azharuddin as he will be felicitated before the start of the game.

Mohammad Azharuddin stand to be inaugurated by Sunil Gavaskar

An HCA official confirmed that the North stand above the VVS Laxman pavilion will be renamed as the Mohammad Azharuddin Stand and is likely to be inaugurated by Sunil Gavaskar, Azhar’s former teammate.

“We will start the day by inaugurating the Mohammad Azharuddin stand which is now basically the North Stand. This will be the one above the V.V.S. Laxman players pavilion. Gavaskar could be the one who will be inaugurating the new stand in the name of one of India’s most successful captains,” the official was quoted as saying by India Today.

The ground will also see a small felicitation ceremony of all the former Hyderabad players, who have played for the Indian team throughout the years, will be honored for their contribution.

“We will have a small ceremony before the game wherein along with the inauguration of the new stand, we will also felicitate players from Hyderabad who have donned the national cap and brought laurels to the country,” he further added.

Earlier, 56-year-old former India captain and current HCA President has a talk with Rohit Sharma and Rishabh Pant during the practice session in the morning. Meanwhile Virat Kohli dismissed India’ fifth ranking in the ICC T20I team rankings saying that they have never fielded a strong team, instead focusing on giving more opportunities to youngsters and experimenting on the go, as they try to pick their best 16 along with potential backups while focusing on the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup 2020 in Australia.

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