Be it Weather Bloggers or Common public there is a strong Urban Legend about the connection between International Cricket & Rains in Chennai. It possibly comes from the time when the highlight of the Indian Cricket Calendar was the post monsoon international cricket. Though the rest of the country enjoyed very good weather Southeast Coast of Indian Subcontinent including Chennai enjoyed its rainy season during this time resulting in possibly more matches getting affected by rains in Chennai compared to the rest of the traditional Test Venues. With the Cricketing calendar completely changed thanks to the globalization and the cricketing venues increasing manifold due to IPL this may not hold good any more.
With International ODI set for return to Chennai after nearly two years the famous question has now come back in all minds. Will the Chennai Rains & International Cricket Connection Continue? We have tried to give our inference on what is in store for the next couple of days and will the cricket get affected. 
We are now seeing a wind pattern that is possibly reflecting the pre-monsoon low preparations by Bay of Bengal with a slightly scrambled wind pattern also happening thanks to the prevalence of Easterlies for so many days. Without doubt the chance of rains for Chennai is highest between today & Monday possibly before the LPA mechanism firms up and slowly the monsoon dynamics gets into shift mode. Chennai and adjoining parts of North Tamil Nadu & South Andhra Pradesh is under a East West Shear Zone type of pattern which is normally conducive for thunderstorms to develop. With Westerlies strengthening the storms have started to reach the coast now compared to a day or two. Thanks to this shear type of wind pattern the weekend is primed for some thunderstorm activity over this region. As always the case the places that benefit will be the ones that fall under favorable wind pattern of the thunderstorms.
Now let us see what ECMWF estimates today & tomorrow, both days rains & thunderstorms are shown in the vicinity of Chennai with possibly higher probability of today’s pre match practice getting affected by rains compared to tomorrow. Nevertheless considering the rainfall probability if I won the toss I would opt for a chase rather than go through the uncertainty of whether do I have a good score to defend amidst possible rainfall disruptions.
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