India A Women's multi-day match against Australia A moves from Dharamshala to Mohali

The BCCI has moved next week's four-day fixture to the PCA IS Bindra Stadium after prolonged rain left the Dharamshala outfield unfit

The multi-day match between India A Women and Australia A Women, scheduled for 29 September to 2 October, will be played in Mohali rather than Dharamshala, the Board of Control for Cricket in India said in an advisory on Wednesday.

The board put the change down to the weather. "The venue change has been necessitated due to the impact of prolonged rainfall in Dharamshala on the outfield and the prevailing ground conditions," the advisory said, confirming that the fixture will now be staged at the PCA IS Bindra Stadium.

The switch keeps the whole of the tour inside Punjab, and asks nothing new of either squad: both are already in Mohali for a one-day series that runs to Friday.

Rain forces a late switch

The advisory, issued by honorary secretary Devajit Saikia, landed six days before the match was due to start, and dealt with the multi-day game alone. The dates are unchanged.

Dharamshala had been given the only long-format fixture of the tour when the season's venues were set out in May, with the rest of the itinerary shared between New Chandigarh and Mohali.

A four-day game is the hardest fixture on any tour to rescue from a wet outfield. There is no reserve day to fall back on, and a saturated square costs sessions rather than an over or two.

The last leg stays in Punjab

The tour opened with three Twenty20 matches in New Chandigarh on 12, 15 and 17 September, before the sides moved to Mohali for three one-day games on 20, 23 and 25 September.

With the four-day match added to that ground's list, the PCA IS Bindra Stadium will now stage seven days of cricket on this tour inside a fortnight.

Australia A Women, who were due to travel up into Himachal Pradesh at the end of the week, instead stay put in a city they have been playing in since the middle of the month.

India A lead the one-day series

India A went 1-0 up in the one-day series with a win at the same ground on Sunday, chasing down Australia A's total with four wickets standing.

They chose to bat in the second match on Wednesday and posted 338 for 6 from their 50 overs, with Australia A's reply to follow.

The third and last one-dayer is at the same venue on Friday, which leaves three clear days before the four-day match begins.

A rare long-format outing

The fixture is the only multi-day match either side will play on this tour, and the sort of game that is scarce in the women's calendar, where almost everything is played over a single day.

For India's selectors it is a look at how an A-team batting order copes with a longer game against Australian opposition, and at how the spinners hold up across four days rather than 50 overs.

It is not the end of the A-team programme at home either: England A Women are due in India later in the season for a series split between Pune and Navi Mumbai.

Australian sides all over India

The women's tour is one of three Australian visits running at once. Australia A's men are two days into a four-day match against India A in Puducherry, where the hosts were bowled out for 334 in their first innings.

Australia's Under-19s are in Rajkot for a youth one-day series, and the senior India Women's side host Zimbabwe next month in Raipur and Baroda.

That traffic makes a late switch easier to absorb. Both squads and the match officials are already in Mohali for the one-day series, and the ground has had cricket on it since Sunday.

The four-day match, the tour's only long-format fixture, now begins in Mohali on Tuesday.

Catch the match live updates, highlights, and full match coverage on CricRadio. Get fast, accurate, and ad-free updates throughout the game. Download the CricRadio app from the Play Store to stay connected. You can also get the live scores of cricket series directly on the CricRadio website for real-time coverage.