Amidst all the upheavals within India’s ODI setup, which has seen Rohit Sharma being sacked as captain and Shubman Gill replacing him, tickets for the second T20I between India and Australia, scheduled
for October 31 in Melbourne, have already been sold out.
Cricket Australia has confirmed that public tickets for the Melbourne T20I have sold out more than three weeks ahead of the game.
The eagerly awaited clash on October 31 at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground will feature as part of India’s white-ball tour of Australia.
The sell-out is notable given that India’s star batters, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, two of the biggest draws, have retired from T20Is after the 2024 T20 World Cup win and will not be playing in these games.
But one cannot deny the pull that Abhishek Sharma has garnered over the last 15 months of his international career. He has scored 849 runs in 23 matches at an average close to 37 and a strike rate of 196.
Melbourne is a top choice for Indian migrants, with 36% of Australia’s Indian migrants choosing to settle there. Hence, one can expect stands full of Indians on October 31, flocking in to watch Abhishek and his teammates.
As per Cricket Australia, ticket sales for the series have already exceeded 175,000, with fewer than 30,000 tickets left for the eight scheduled games.
Public ticket allocations for Sydney and Manuka Oval have already sold out, while the Adelaide ODI and Gabba T20I are almost full, with fewer than 5,000 seats remaining at each venue.
Sydney will host the third ODI on Saturday, October 25 and with that seemingly being Rohit and Kohli’s final 50-over appearance Down Under, it is guaranteed to be a sell-out game.
“The huge crowd anticipated for the Melbourne T20I is another strong indicator of the incredible interest in this series,” Cricket Australia CEO Todd Greenberg said in a statement.
