Melbourne, Oct 6 (IANS) Cricket Australia (CA) on Monday announced that public ticket allocations for the men’s T20I game between Australia and India at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) have been fully exhausted, more than three weeks ahead of the fixture scheduled to be held on October 31.

Previously, public allocations for 12 days of the five-match Ashes series between Australia and England were exhausted. CA added that the extraordinary demand for the Melbourne T20I reflects the high interest surrounding India’s white-ball tour, which has now surpassed 175,000 tickets sold across eight matches.

“The huge crowd anticipated for the Melbourne T20I is another strong indicator of the incredible interest in this series. We’re thrilled to see fans embracing the Australia v India contest with such passion, and we look forward to delivering a world-class experience both on and off the field.

“To have over 1,75,000 tickets sold with 13 days until the first ODI in Perth is a phenomenal result. It speaks volumes about the strength of the rivalry and the enthusiasm of fans across the country,” said CA CEO Todd Greenberg in a statement.

CA also said AFL member tickets for the MCG T20I fixture will go on sale on Monday, while MCC member tickets will be available from Tuesday. Public allocations for Sydney and Manuka Oval matches are already exhausted, while the Adelaide ODI and Gabba T20I are nearing capacity, with fewer than 5,000 public tickets left for each.

India’s white-ball tour of Australia starts with the ODI series opener on October 19 at Perth Stadium and is followed by matches at Adelaide Oval and Sydney Cricket Ground on October 23 and 25, respectively.

It is followed by the five-match T20I series beginning on October 29 at Manuka Oval in Canberra, with further games to be played at the MCG on October 31, Bellerive Oval in Hobart on November 2, Gold Coast Stadium on November 6 and The Gabba in Brisbane on November 8.

The last time India toured Australia for a bilateral ODI series, the visitors’ lost by 2-1 margin in 2020/21 but managed to win the subsequent T20I series by the same margin on the same tour.

India will be led by newly appointed Shubman Gill in the ODIs, with stalwarts Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli named in the squad too, while Suryakumar Yadav would take over as the skipper for the T20I leg of the tour.

–IANS

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