Floodlight delays force Australia-India ODI to be moved out of Melbourne
The match has been moved to Hobart with the tight schedule meaning it couldn't be switched into a day game
ESPNcricinfo staff
10-Sep-2025 • 6 hrs ago
Junction Oval's floodlights had been due to be up by early next year • Getty Images
The game had been due to be the ground's first floodlit fixture but planning delays and ongoing work that would have impacted spectator access meant Cricket Australia had to move the match to Tasmania, which gives Hobart back-to-back ODIs in the series.
With the tight schedule of the series - there is just one day between the second and third ODIs - it wasn't considered practical to make the Junction Oval fixture into a day game. The MCG, which hosted the day-night Ashes Test last season, won't be available due to renovation works.
"We are disappointed we have had to move this match from Junction Oval and that there will be no women's international match in Melbourne this season," Peter Roach, CA's head of cricket operations and scheduling, said. "We anticipated the Junction Oval lights would be installed several weeks before this fixture and were looking forward to celebrating the first international match under lights at the ground."
Junction Oval will continue to host WBBL matches involving Melbourne Stars and Melbourne Renegades, with all those games daytime fixtures, as well as other domestic cricket as scheduled.
The ODIs are part of a multi-format series against India which starts with three T20Is and will finish with a day-night Test at the WACA in Perth.
The home international season for Australia's women has been pushed back to February and March due to the WPL's move to January and the upcoming ODI World Cup being staged throughout October. It means there will be more than 12 months between their appearances on home soil.
"Not having an international fixture in that school holiday period does hurt a little bit, but in saying that, it kind of extends the cricket season, which isn't completely a bad thing for our sport," captain Alyssa Healy said earlier this year. "At the back end of the Ashes [last year], I felt like that was really cool to have it at the end of the Border-Gavaskar [Trophy], so hopefully there's similar sort of momentum this year at the end of the men's Ashes, that there's still some more cricket to watch."