The Women’s Premier League’s 2025 caravan moves to Lucknow from March 3 with home side UP Warriorz taking on Gujarat Giants in the leg opener. Ahead of the latest stop in the WPL bandwagon, here’s a look at the venue — the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow, its playing stats and details and everything else you need to know.
Ekana Cricket Stadium, also known as Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee is an international cricket stadium in Lucknow. It has the longest straight boundaries among cricketing venues in India. It is the home ground of Uttar Pradesh cricket team, UP women’s cricket team and IPL franchise Lucknow Super Giants. In 2019, the Afghanistan men’s cricket team used the venue as its home ground.
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The K. D. Singh Babu Stadium, which is situated in the centre of the city, used to host international cricket matches in Lucknow before Ekana was built. The arena also hosted five matches of the 2023 Men’s Cricket World Cup.
Boundary Dimensions: Ekana Stadium is one of the moderate sized grounds in India. The square boundaries are around 63 – 65 metres while the straighter boundaries are 68 to 70 metres.
Pitch: The Ekana stadium has traditionally been known to favour bowlers, spinners in particular.
Here’s a look at the ground’s IPL statistics:
Matches Played: 14
Batting First Won: 7
Batting Second Won: 6
Average First Innings Score: 165
Average Second Innings Score: 152
Wickets Taken by Pacers: 102
Wickets Taken by Spinners: 64
Pacers Wicket Percentage: 61.45%
Spinners Wicket Percentage: 38.55%
T20 International Stats:
Matches Played: 9
Batting First Won: 5
Batting Second Won: 4
Average First Innings Score: 146.5
Average Second Innings Score: 128.5
Wickets Taken by Pacers: 62
Wickets Taken by Spinners: 31
Pacers Wicket Percentage: 66.67%
Spinners Wicket Percentage: 33.33%
Key questions ahead of the Lucknow leg
• How many T20s have been played so far in the Ekana Stadium?
23 T20s have been played that includes both IPL and the T20Is since 2018.
• How many times have teams won batting first?
Out of 23 T20s played, 12 matches have been won by the teams batting first.
• How many times have teams won batting second?
Out of 23 T20s played, 10 matches have been won by the teams batting second and one match IPL match between CSK and LSG has been washed out in 2023 due to rain.
• What is the overall first innings score?
The average first innings score is around 156 among the 23 T20s played.
• What is the overall second innings score?
The average second innings score is 140.
• What is the average pacers wicket percentage?
The average percentage of the pacers wicket is 64.06
• What is the average spinners wicket percentage?
The average percentage of the spinners wicket is 35.94.
PLAYERS TO WATCH OUT FOR DURING THE LUCKNOW LEG IN WPL 2025:
Ekana loves its spinners. The home franchise’s off-spin duo of Sophie Ecclestone and Deepti Sharma will be rubbing their hands in glee at the prospect of making the most of the conditions in Lucknow. Jess Jonassen and Georgia Wareham are the only two spinners in the top five wicket-takers tally. This venue may allow a few others to make gains in the pile. One can expect lower scores too at the Ekana.
Nat-Sciver Brunt’s allround ability against pace and spin will make her a batter to watch out for. Mumbai Indians has just one match in the Lucknow leg. UP’s big hitters — Chinelle Henry and Grace Harris — are yet to have a solid week of good scores. A home leg could be just what they need to plunder some important runs. Their strength will be important in clearing the larger boundaries at the Ekana compared to the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
