Inside the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh Stadium, Punjab's new open-air venue in Mullanpur

March 23 will be a significant day for Rishabh Pant. On Saturday, he is set to play his first competitive match after surviving a horrific car crash in December 2022 and will lead Delhi Capitals in their IPL opener in an away match against Punjab Kings. Pant's return will happen at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium, which is located in the village of Mullanpur (pronounced with 'n' silent), on the outskirts of Chandigarh, and is the new home base of Punjab franchise.

Yadavindra Singh, who played a solitary Test for India in 1934, was the son of Maharaja of Patiala - Bhupendrasingh Rajendrasingh, who donated the Ranji Trophy, in honour of KS Ranjitsinhji, in 1933. However, the venue is popularly known as just Mullanpur or New PCA stadium.

The Mullanpur venue, which in the last year received clearances from BCCI and ICC to host international matches, is expected to host five of Punjab's seven home matches. Owned by the Punjab Cricket Association (PCA), the approximately 33,000-seat ground is about 45-minute drive north of Mohali in northern Indian state of Punjab.

Planned around 2010 by IS Bindra, former PCA and BCCI president, the Mullanpur venue has been in the making for several years after building works commenced in 2017. It was meant to be opened by 2020, but the Covid-19 pandemic was among several other reasons behind the delay. While it has already hosted several domestic matches since 2021, including Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (23 matches in last two seasons) and Vijay Hazare Trophy (five in 2021-22 season) as well as one Ranji Trophy match this January, the venue will be officially inaugurated on Saturday.

Incidentally, Bindra's other brainchild, the eponymous IS Bindra stadium in Mohali, was the original all-stop cricket destination in Punjab. That venue, which is still functional, was a pioneer of modern cricket grounds in India when it opened in 1992. Low-level open-air seating, complemented with pace-friendly pitches prepared by former BCCI chief curator Daljit Singh had made cricket at Mohali an enjoyable experience.

However, that ground, which housed 25,000 spectators and hosted several memorable matches, both bilateral and World Cup including the India-Pakistan semi-final in the 2011 World Cup, and individual records like Sachin Tendulkar overtaking Brian Lara as Test cricket's leading run-maker in 2009, faced a few significant challenges on match days.

Based in a residential area, crowd management and traffic control were a huge hurdle. Crowds were asked to walk for a couple kilometres at times to get an entry while their vehicles were parked roadside, thus creating a traffic snarl. The other big issue was that the old ground is located close to the airport. Consequently, the floodlights in IS Bindra stadium were positioned low to ensure they didn't obstruct flights which frequently droned overhead during live cricket.

Significantly, the low floodlights - which were 18 in total (due to low luminosity) - led to fielders being blinded while attempting high catches. The Mullanpur venue doesn't have any such deterrents. With an expansive parking space that can accommodate over 1500 vehicles, the ground is located adjacent to the Baddi highway which PCA officials say is an easy drive from Chandigarh airport and some of the neighbouring cities - including Delhi, which is a three-plus-hour drive on clear-traffic days - as well as some of the towns in the neighbouring state of Himachal Pradesh.

A cloud of dust trails you as you ride along the unpaved path leading to the ground. Unfinished road and construction work remains an eyesore both outside and inside the venue, but you can expect a finished product come the 2025 season.

The size difference between Mohali and Mullanpur grounds is easily evident: while the former is spread across about 14 acres, this new venue is built on a 40-plus acres of what was originally a farm land. Acres of wheat gleams in the afternoon sun, ripe for harvest during Baisakhi, which is a festival celebrated in Punjab in mid-April.

As you enter the ground, you immediately get the vibes of being inside a football stadium in England. It is an open-air ground right now which, according to PCA secretary Dilsher Khanna, will have canopies ready by 2025 IPL season. It begs the question: what happens to fans during peak summer in afternoon matches?

Currently in the first set of the schedule released by the IPL, Mullanpur is hosting a solitary afternoon match - on Saturday. The spectator stands climb to three tiers with the walking terrace around the rim of the ground. The lower tier is designed close to ground level allowing the fan an intimate view of the field. Khanna boasts about the venue having 49 corporate boxes, probably the highest at Indian cricket grounds, which he says will allow "premium vision".

Players have to walk about 44 steps and down a fibreglass-covered ramp to get to the ground. The standout bit about the dressing room, which is housed in the Harbhajan Singh Pavilion, is the wide open terrace outside the change rooms which have a side-on view of the pitch. The artificial turf mat covering the floor of the terrace, which runs across both dressing rooms, is wide enough for players to engage in a throwdown.

On Wednesday, when Capitals came for their first practice session, which was optional, the ground sparkled under the six towering floodlights. Ricky Ponting, Capitals' head coach, twinkle-toed to test the two middle pitches of the overall seven. There are seven more on the B ground along with 11 practice pitches. However, the square where they are housed is not completely ready yet so both teams have been training on the four pitches in the main square.

Just like the IS Bindra stadium, which was among the leading fast-scoring grounds in previous editions of IPL, Mullanpur pitches have also been batter friendly. In the 2023-24 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (India's domestic T20 competition), Mullanpur ranked fourth on the list of venues with highest overall run rates at 8.51 with a cut-off of five matches. IS Bindra was second at 8.87.

Punjab Kings will hope that their fortunes change at their new home base following a poor home record at the IS Bindra, where they won just one out of the five home games in 2023 IPL.

On Wednesday, the franchise conducted the traditional pooja [prayer] for a prosperous season on the field. PCA's chief curator Rakesh Kumar is hopeful about the new venue's prospects, "I wish the opening ceremony happens next IPL in Mullanpur. For that Punjab need to win the IPL."

Saturday is indeed a big day, not just for Pant but also for cricket in Mullanpur as a whole.