India allotted visiting team dressing room at Arun Jaitley Stadium for Afghanistan T20I series

India have been allotted the visitors’ dressing room at Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi ahead of the three-match T20I series against Afghanistan beginning September 13, 2026. The arrangement is unprecedented in Indian cricket: for the first time in the country’s cricketing history, the home side will use the away dressing room at a ground that regularly stages India’s home fixtures.

The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) holds official host status for the series, which makes Afghanistan the home side in administrative terms even though all three matches are scheduled at Arun Jaitley Stadium. That designation determines the dressing room allocation at the venue, with practical consequences that are immediately visible upon arrival at the ground.

The home team’s dressing room at Arun Jaitley Stadium, previously known as Feroz Shah Kotla Ground, carries the name of former India cricketer Raman Lamba. Afghanistan players will use that facility across all three matches. India, operating as the visiting side under this arrangement, will use the dressing room named after former India player Prakash Bhandari, which is the designated away room at the ground. The dressing room allocation remains fixed for the duration of the series.

Why is Afghanistan the official host for a series played in India?

Afghanistan regularly fulfils home international fixtures outside their own country. Cricket infrastructure in Afghanistan is not fully developed, and security conditions make staging matches on home soil difficult. The ACB therefore arranges neutral or partner venues abroad to meet their home-series obligations, a practice that has seen Afghanistan use venues across multiple countries over the years.

This represents the first occasion on which the Afghans hold official host status for a series against India staged on Indian soil. While India and Afghanistan have met in bilateral and multi-team tournaments previously, the administrative host role has not rested with the ACB for a series played inside India’s borders until now. They have, however, played matches in Noida, Dehradun, and Lucknow as hosts against other teams.

The dressing room allocation at Arun Jaitley Stadium is a direct logistical consequence of that host designation, underlining how administrative status governs on-ground arrangements regardless of which country the venue sits in.

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