Ekana Cricket Stadium

Lucknow's Ekana Cricket Stadium is one of the top Indian Premier League venues, with crowds of more than 50,000 able to watch high quality Twenty20 cricket here. Our OCB guide to Ekana Cricket Stadium tells you all you need to know, so read on for more. 

The ground, which is officially known as Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee (BRSABV) Ekana Cricket Stadium as it is named after one of India's greatest prime ministers, was completed in 2017 and the ground was one of the main host venues when the 2023 Men's Cricket World Cup was held in India.

A handful of key games were played in Lucknow including India's 100-run win against England. 

Rohit Sharma scored the first international T20 century at Ekana Cricket Stadium when the Indian batter reached three figures at a rapid rate in a 2018 match against the West Indies.

The Lucknow ground is yet to be selected for a Test match involving India, but it has been used for a five-day match between Afghanistan and West Indies, which was played in November 2019.

Ekana Cricket Stadium Pitch Report

The Lucknow ground has not always been known for heavy scoring, but recent Ekana Cricket Stadium pitch reports show it is becoming better for batting. T20 matches during 2024 saw an average first innings score of nearly 183, which is a big jump on the data from previous years. 

Figures from Cricmetric show there is less of an advantage to chasing that at many IPL venues. While 50% of T20 matches at Ekana Cricket Stadium are won by the side batting second, the team setting a target is able to win 47.9% of the time, so there is an almost even split here.

As is the case with a lot of stadiums that are being used for the Indian Premier League nowadays, medium pacers tend to have a high economy rate in T20 matches being played at the Ekana Cricket Stadium, while fast bowlers have some of the lowest averages on this ground. 

The Ekana Cricket Stadium pitch report is not always without controversy. The venue was the subject of many negative headlines as recently as 2023 when it hosted a very low-scoring T20I between India and New Zealand, in which the hosts only chased down 100 with one ball left. India captain Hardik Pandya called it a "shocker of a pitch" and the groundsman was sacked. 

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