It was a wet blanket on fan enthusiasm at Chinnaswamy

It was after two years that an international fixture returned to Bengaluru’s iconic M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday. And the common factor between the previous international match at the venue (October 16, 2024) and Saturday’s fixture, as any cricket fan could guess, was anticipation of rain. With one crucial difference — while the 2024 match ended in a result, the 2026 one had to be abandoned midway with rain playing spoilsport. What had promised to be a high-voltage series decider between India and the West Indies had to be abandoned with rains coming thick and strong. Earlier in the day, fans had braved intermittent rains and Bengaluru’s nightmare traffic to reach the venue. By sunset on Saturday, thousands of cricket fans thronged Queens Road and M.G. Road, donning India jerseys and creating a sea of blue around the stadium. Traffic crawled along waterlogged Queens Road, but the police barricading ensured that fans did not spill over onto the road to further exacerbate it, facilitating the smooth movement of vehicles.

The stadium is a familiar setting for Virat Kohli (now retired from T20Is), who represents the home team, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, in the Indian Premier League (IPL). But on Saturday, it was the name of his IPL teammate Bhuvneshwar Kumar that echoed through conversations among fans.

It was Kumar’s international comeback after four years, with his last international appearance dating back to 2022. Since then, Kumar, popularly known as the ‘Swing King,’ had not featured in India’s colours. Many had written him off, but his comeback became a story that resonated with Bengaluru. Social media was abuzz with the connection between Kumar and Bengaluru since Friday — how he began his IPL journey with an RCB contract, how his T20 international debut for India against Pakistan in 2012 was at the Chinnaswamy and so on.

Sadly, all that buzz and enthusiasm eventually came to naught.

Manoj Garg, a fan, said a match in Bengaluru is always at the mercy of weather gods. “It could be a rain of sixes or just rain that ends it all!”