WI Tour India 2026 Day 1: Timings, Broadcast, Tickets

If you are planning your day around the West Indies tour of India 2026 opener, here is the short answer first. Day 1 of the first Test is scheduled for a 9:30 AM IST start, with the toss 30 minutes before and gates opening from 8:00 AM. The match streams on JioHotstar across India and on the Star Sports network on television, with the Caribbean feed on ESPN Caribbean and the UK signal on TNT Sports. Ticket allotment opens roughly four weeks ahead through BookMyShow and the host association portal, with day-one tier pricing indicative from 250 INR for upper stands to 7,500 INR for premium pavilion seats.

Full Tour Schedule

The 2026 visit is structured as a multi-format tour spanning roughly five weeks, weighted toward the white-ball formats but with two Tests that carry WTC 2025-27 cycle significance for India. The full fixture frame, drawn from BCCI's home-season communication and CWI tour confirmations, is below.

Format	Match	Date (Day 1)	Venue	IST Start
Test	1st Test	Oct 02, 2026	Ahmedabad (Narendra Modi Stadium)	9:30 AM
Test	2nd Test	Oct 10, 2026	Kolkata (Eden Gardens)	9:30 AM
ODI	1st ODI	Oct 19, 2026	Hyderabad (Rajiv Gandhi Stadium)	1:30 PM
ODI	2nd ODI	Oct 22, 2026	Indore (Holkar Stadium)	1:30 PM
ODI	3rd ODI	Oct 25, 2026	Visakhapatnam (ACA-VDCA)	1:30 PM
T20I	1st T20I	Oct 29, 2026	Cuttack (Barabati Stadium)	7:00 PM
T20I	2nd T20I	Oct 31, 2026	Mumbai (Wankhede)	7:00 PM
T20I	3rd T20I	Nov 03, 2026	Chennai (M. A. Chidambaram)	7:00 PM

Dates and venues are subject to BCCI confirmation as the home season finalises around the T20 World Cup window. The full tour frame sits inside the wider India home season 2026-27 fixture grid, which also brackets Sri Lanka, Australia and South Africa visits.

Day 1 Session Timings (Ahmedabad Test)

Test cricket in India in October still benefits from cool mornings and longer first sessions before the dew or haze affects the back end of the day. The session structure for the first Test is conventional ICC playing-condition format, with the toss at 9:00 AM and the day's play structured across three sessions.

Session	Start (IST)	End (IST)	Notes
Toss	9:00 AM	9:15 AM	National anthems follow immediately
Session 1	9:30 AM	11:30 AM	Two-hour morning session, new ball is gold
Lunch	11:30 AM	12:10 PM	Forty-minute interval
Session 2	12:10 PM	2:10 PM	Tea typically depends on overs bowled
Tea	2:10 PM	2:30 PM	Twenty-minute break
Session 3	2:30 PM	4:30 PM	Final session, second new ball window
Stumps	4:30 PM	-	Day 1 close, scheduled 90 overs

The match referee can shorten or extend by up to 30 minutes to recover lost overs, and stop-clock and over-rate provisions apply per the latest playing conditions.

Where to Watch (Region-by-Region)

Broadcast rights for the West Indies tour of India sit with Disney Star (now under JioHotstar OTT branding for streaming) in India, while overseas territories are split across the regional rights structure CWI and the BCCI typically settle.

Region	TV Broadcaster	OTT / Streaming	Notes
India	Star Sports network	JioHotstar	Hindi, English and regional feeds
United Kingdom	TNT Sports	discovery+	Pay-TV; clip rights with BBC TMS audio
United States	Willow TV	Willow / Sling	Subscription-based; subject to renewal
Australia	Fox Sports	Kayo	Pay-TV; cricket package recommended
South Africa	SuperSport	DStv Stream	Cricket channels package
West Indies	ESPN Caribbean	ESPN Play Caribbean	Local rights via CWI
Pakistan	A Sports	Tamasha	Often via PCB partnership feed
Bangladesh	T Sports	Toffee	Subject to BTRC carriage approval

OTT pricing in India for JioHotstar Premium remains in the 299-499 INR per month band as of the latest tariff card, with annual subscriptions discounted. Willow in the United States runs at roughly 9.99 USD per month or via Sling Cricket add-on at 10 USD per month.

Tickets and Pricing (Indicative)

Ticket prices vary heavily by venue. Ahmedabad's Narendra Modi Stadium, with a 132,000 capacity, has wider tier spreads than smaller grounds like Cuttack. The 2026 tier framework, based on recent India home Tests and ODIs, looks like the indicative table below.

Tier	Test (Ahmedabad)	ODI (Hyderabad)	T20I (Wankhede)
Upper Stand	250 INR	500 INR	800 INR
Middle Stand	750 INR	1,500 INR	2,500 INR
Lower Stand	1,500 INR	3,000 INR	5,000 INR
Premium Pavilion	5,000 INR	7,500 INR	10,000 INR
Corporate Box	12,500 INR	18,000 INR	25,000 INR

Allotment opens through BookMyShow and the host association's portal four to six weeks before the match. Payment cards, UPI and net banking are accepted. Photo ID linked to the booking is required at gate entry.

Venue Logistics

The Narendra Modi Stadium sits on the Motera side of Ahmedabad, with Sabarmati railway station the nearest mainline arrival point and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport about 15 kilometres away. Public-transport access via the BRTS and Ahmedabad metro's Motera station is straightforward, although match-day surge pricing on cabs is severe in the final hour before the first ball.

For the Eden Gardens leg in Kolkata, Howrah and Sealdah stations both connect by metro, and the ground's heritage stands carry stricter bag-size and food restrictions. Mumbai's Wankhede uses the Churchgate station entry and bans water bottles above 500 ml. Chennai's Chidambaram Stadium has a tight catchment, so plan arrival 90 minutes ahead.

For the international visitors, this tour is the most demanding away leg of the calendar — the West Indies tour of India 2026 schedule page carries the longer-form preview, and fans cross-comparing it against the India tour of England 2026 Day 1 timings will notice the IST differential is the inverse of the English summer.

What to Watch For

The first session at the Narendra Modi Stadium will tell you whether the surface holds spin or rewards seam-up bowling. India's decision on whether to play three seamers plus two spinners or revert to the 2-3 split depends partly on Cape Town and Headingley readouts earlier in the cycle. The West Indies seam group, with Shamar Joseph leading, has the variable-bounce weapon that has historically troubled India at home in patches. Roston Chase's captaincy decisions in the field, and the white-ball selection of Pooran (subject to the franchise availability conversation), will dictate how this tour rates as a T20 World Cup audition for both sides.