Known as the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow, it was later changed to Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in 2018 in honour of India’s former Prime Minister.
With a capacity of 50,000, the Ekana Cricket Stadium is one of the biggest in the country but even more vitally, it has one of the longest boundaries for a cricket stadium in India.
The Ekana Stadium is home to the Uttar Pradesh team in first class and List A cricket, other than also featuring international matches involving both, India and Afghanistan. Afghanistan adopted this stadium in Lucknow as their home ground.
This stadium also hosts matches for the Indian Premier League side of Lucknow Super Giants.
Ekana Cricket Stadium Lucknow Tickets
Ekana Stadium World Cup Tickets & Schedule
This stadium was also used for the 2023 World Cup where five of the matches were held. These include:
- Australia v South Africa: In what was Australia’s one of only two defeats in the 2023 World Cup, South Africa registered a thumping, 134-run win over the Aussies at this venue.
- Australia v Sri Lanka: Australia played here again against Sri Lanka and this time around came back strongly to seal off a five-wicket win in a low-scoring chase.
- Netherlands v Sri Lanka: Netherlands did well to pile up 262 here but Sri Lanka chased it down in the 49th over with five wickets to spare.
- India v England: India defended their lowest score of the tournament at this ground, making 229 and winning by 100 runs against the defending champions.
- Afghanistan v Netherlands: Afghanistan crushed the Netherlands by seven wickets in this encounter.
Ekana Stadium IPL 2024 Tickets
Tickets for IPL 2024 matches at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow can be booked online through platforms like PayTM, Bookmyshow, and insiders.in, or offline at the stadium’s ticket counter. The online process is more convenient, allowing seat selection and digital payment, with the option for home delivery of tickets.
Ekana Cricket Stadium Seating Layout
There are four major stands at the ground – North, East, South, and West. The North and South stands are covered and have not only the best viewing experience but also the most comfortable seats in the house.
Each of these stands is further divided into upper and lower blocks, VIP lounges, corporate boxes and presidential galleries.
The Ekana Stadium also offers different kinds of pitches with strips of red soil and black soil surfaces available for the curators to use.
How to get to Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow by Bus, Metro or Train?
Ekana Cricket Stadium Address: Sector 7, Amar Shaheed Path, Gomti Nagar, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh 226010, India
Nearest Metro Station: Indira Nagar Metro station
The Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium is located at the Ekana Sportz City in Gomti Nagar in Lucknow. Multiple ways are used which one can get to this Ekana cricket stadium.
For starters, one of the ways to get to the stadium is by taking a metro. Use the red line on Lucknow Metro which is close to the Ekana Stadium. Get off at the Indira Nagar Metro Station or any one of the other stops around it and from there, take a cab or other mode of transport to reach the stadium. It could take about 25 minutes from the metro stations to get to the Ekana Stadium.
Typically, during IPL matches or any other international cricket match days, the local municipality allows this metro line to run till late in the night to allow patrons to get home.
The other option is to use the feeder buses that might ply during match days as well. These feeder buses can be found at the Indira Nagar Station and help passengers get to the stadium more easily rather than wait for cabs or autos.
There are LCTSL buses that also run and you can catch any one of them which stops at the Ekana Stadium Bus Stop or the SUDA Office Bus Stop.
If you are landing in Lucknow from outside of the city, you can fly down to the Lucknow Airport or what is called the Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport. The stadium is about 17 km from the airport and you can do the same – take the Red Line metro from the airport and get off at the Indira Nagar Station from where you can take a bus.
Notable Events at the Ekana Cricket Stadium
Before the use of this stadium, cricket was hosted at the K. D. Singh Babu Stadium in this city – Tests and ODIs for both men’s and women’s cricket were played here.
In the very first Test played at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow in 2019, West Indies romped to a nine-wicket win over Afghanistan. The game lasted just three days.
It’s still very early days for this Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana cricket stadium and only a handful of ODIs and T20Is were played here in the lead-up to the 2023 World Cup.
