Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi: pitch report, records and stats
Delhi’s ground has produced a perfect ten, a 428 and the highest successful chase in IPL history. Here is the pitch report and the full record book at the Arun Jaitley Stadium.
Jul 27, 2026 · Updated Aug 1, 2026
The Arun Jaitley Stadium is Delhi’s international cricket ground, built in 1883, known as the Feroz Shah Kotla until 2019, and home to Delhi Capitals in the IPL. It is the second-oldest functioning international venue in India after Eden Gardens, it holds roughly 41,820 people, and it staged six matches at the 2026 T20 World Cup. It is also where Anil Kumble took all ten wickets in a Test innings. This page covers the pitch, what the toss is actually worth here, and the full record book across Tests, ODIs, T20Is and the IPL.
Arun Jaitley Stadium at a glance
| Location | Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, central Delhi |
| Established | 1883 |
| Former name | Feroz Shah Kotla, renamed 12 September 2019 |
| Capacity | About 41,820 |
| Ends | Pavilion End, Stadium End |
| Home teams | Delhi Capitals (IPL), Delhi (domestic) |
| Operator | Delhi and District Cricket Association |
| Floodlights | Yes |
The ground takes its old name from the fourteenth-century fort next door, built when Sultan Feroz Shah Tughlaq founded the city of Ferozabad on this land in 1354. The DDCA renamed the stadium on 12 September 2019 in memory of Arun Jaitley, the former union minister and DDCA president who had died 19 days earlier.
Arun Jaitley Stadium pitch report
The reputation says chasing ground. The full record is more interesting than that, because the answer has changed depending on which decade and which competition you look at.
Across the 104 IPL matches played here between 2008 and 2026, the side batting second has won 54 and the side batting first 47, with two ties and one no result. That is where the chasing reputation comes from. But split it at 2016 and it disappears: across the 58 IPL matches since then the record is exactly level, 28 wins batting first and 28 chasing. The toss has stopped deciding anything.
What has changed is the scoring. The first-innings average across all 104 IPL matches at the ground is 171.8. Across the 58 since 2016 it is 182.3. That is a real jump, and it makes Delhi the opposite of Chepauk, where the same calculation comes out at 165.6 all-time and 165.1 since 2016, a square that absorbed almost none of the last decade’s batting inflation. Delhi absorbed all of it.
The ODI numbers move the same way and further. The first-innings average across the 17 ODIs here since 2005 is 243.7; across the six since 2016 it is 286.5. In T20 internationals the average first innings is 168, and the chase leads 8-4, the one format where the received wisdom still holds.
So the practical read is this. The surface is quick-scoring and has got quicker, the outfield is fast and the square boundaries are not long, and dew is a genuine factor for evening games. But a captain winning the toss in the IPL no longer has an obvious call, whatever the all-time column says. And the pitch has not lost its teeth entirely: Delhi Daredevils were bowled out here for 66 in 2017, and Namibia for 116 at the 2026 T20 World Cup.
Test records at the Arun Jaitley Stadium
The ground has staged Test cricket since November 1948, and its Test record book holds the single most famous number attached to the place.
| Highest team total | West Indies 644 for 8 declared, February 1959 |
| Lowest team total | India 75, November 1987 |
| Highest individual score | Virat Kohli 243 v Sri Lanka, December 2017 |
| Best bowling in an innings | Anil Kumble 10 for 74 v Pakistan, February 1999 |
| Leading run-scorer | Sachin Tendulkar |
Kumble’s 10 for 74 on 7 February 1999 is one of only three occasions a bowler has taken all ten wickets in a Test innings, after Jim Laker in 1956 and before Ajaz Patel in 2021.
The modern era has been kinder to bowlers than the 1959 scoreline suggests. Ravindra Jadeja took 7 for 42 against Australia in February 2023, finishing with match figures of 10 for 110 in a Test that was over inside three days. Batting has had its days too: India made 613 for 7 declared against Australia in October 2008, built on Gautam Gambhir’s 206 and VVS Laxman’s 200 not out.
ODI records at the Arun Jaitley Stadium
| Highest team total | South Africa 428 for 5 v Sri Lanka, 7 October 2023 |
| Lowest team total | Netherlands 90 v Australia, 25 October 2023 |
| Best bowling in an innings | Kemar Roach 6 for 27 v Netherlands, February 2011 |
| Highest successful chase | Bangladesh, chasing 280 v Sri Lanka, 6 November 2023 |
The 2023 World Cup gave this ground its ODI extremes inside a month. South Africa’s 428 for 5 against Sri Lanka on 7 October remains the highest total made at the venue in any format, and it came with hundreds from Quinton de Kock, Rassie van der Dussen and Aiden Markram, whose 49-ball hundred was the fastest anyone had made in a World Cup. Eighteen days later Australia bowled the Netherlands out for 90 on the same square, Adam Zampa taking 4 for 8.
Older but stranger: Viv Richards took 6 for 41 against India here in the 1989 Nehru Cup, the best figures of his ODI career, bowling the part-time off spin and medium pace he was never picked for.
T20I records at the Arun Jaitley Stadium
| Highest team total | India 221 for 9 v Bangladesh, 9 October 2024 |
| Lowest team total | Namibia 116 v India, 12 February 2026 |
| Highest individual score | Rohit Sharma 80 off 55 and Shikhar Dhawan 80 off 52, both v New Zealand, 1 November 2017 |
| Highest successful chase | South Africa, chasing 212 v India, 9 June 2022 |
Delhi was a busy venue at the 2026 T20 World Cup, staging six matches between 10 February and 1 March, among them India against Namibia on 12 February and a Super Eight tie on 1 March. India’s 221 for 9 against Bangladesh in October 2024 is still the ground’s highest T20I total, and South Africa’s chase of 212 in June 2022 is the biggest target hunted down here in the format.
IPL records at the Arun Jaitley Stadium
Delhi have played here as the Daredevils and, since 2019, as the Capitals, and after 19 seasons they are still waiting for a first title.
| Matches played | 104 (2008 to 2026) |
| Highest team total | Sunrisers Hyderabad 278 for 3, 25 May 2025 |
| Lowest team total | Delhi Daredevils 66, 6 May 2017 |
| Highest individual score | KL Rahul 152 not out off 67, 25 April 2026 |
| Best bowling in an innings | Lasith Malinga 5 for 13, 10 April 2011 |
| Most runs at the ground | David Warner, 1,048 |
| Most wickets at the ground | Amit Mishra, 58 |
| Highest successful chase | Punjab Kings, chasing 265, 25 April 2026 |
The 278 for 3 came against Kolkata Knight Riders on 25 May 2025, Heinrich Klaasen making 105 not out from 39 balls and Travis Head 76 from 40. Kolkata were bowled out for 168 and lost by 110.
What gets overlooked is how recent almost all of the big scoring is. Six of the seven highest totals at this ground have been made since April 2024, and three of them in a single season. Sunrisers Hyderabad’s 266 for 7 on 20 April 2024 was the score that first broke Delhi Daredevils’ 231 for 4 from April 2011, a venue record that had stood for thirteen years, and it was passed twice more within a week when Delhi made 257 for 4 and Mumbai Indians replied with 247 for 9 on 27 April 2024.
Amit Mishra’s 58 wickets is the tally worth sitting with. A leg spinner leads the wicket list at a ground whose first-innings average has climbed past 180, which says something about how much the surface still rewards pace off the ball even as the totals have gone up.
The chase that broke the IPL record
On 25 April 2026 Delhi Capitals batted first and made 264 for 2. KL Rahul’s 152 not out from 67 balls, with 16 fours and nine sixes, was the largest individual score made at the ground in the league and the first 150 by an Indian batter in IPL history. His second-wicket stand of 220 with Nitish Rana, who made 91 from 44, is one of the biggest partnerships the tournament has produced.
Punjab Kings then took 116 runs off the powerplay. Prabhsimran Singh made 76 from 26 balls, Priyansh Arya 43 from 17, and Shreyas Iyer finished it with 71 not out from 36 to win by six wickets with seven balls to spare. The target of 265 is the highest successfully chased in IPL history, beating the 262 Punjab themselves chased at Eden Gardens in April 2024.
Quick answers
What is the capacity of the Arun Jaitley Stadium? Around 41,820, which makes it a mid-sized venue by Indian standards.
Why was Feroz Shah Kotla renamed? The DDCA renamed it on 12 September 2019 for Arun Jaitley, its former president and a union minister, who had died on 24 August 2019.
Is the Arun Jaitley Stadium a batting or bowling pitch? A batting one, and increasingly so. The IPL first-innings average has gone from 171.8 all-time to 182.3 since 2016.
Should you bat first or chase at the Arun Jaitley Stadium? In the IPL it no longer matters much: since 2016 the split is exactly 28-28. In T20 internationals the chase still leads 8-4.
What is the highest score ever made at the ground? South Africa’s 428 for 5 against Sri Lanka in the 2023 World Cup, across all formats. In the IPL it is Sunrisers Hyderabad’s 278 for 3.
Which IPL team plays at the Arun Jaitley Stadium? Delhi Capitals, who have used the ground since the first IPL season in 2008.
Has anyone taken all ten wickets in an innings there? Yes. Anil Kumble did it against Pakistan on 7 February 1999, figures of 10 for 74.
How Delhi compares
Set against the other big Indian grounds, Delhi sits in the middle. It scores faster than Chepauk, where twenty-over par has barely moved in a decade, and it has followed the same upward curve as Eden Gardens. It does not produce the sustained run-scoring of Wankhede, and it is smaller than the Narendra Modi Stadium by some distance.
For the international side of this venue in isolation, our Arun Jaitley Stadium T20I records page goes deeper on the Twenty20 international history, and our T20 cricket records list puts Delhi’s numbers against the format as a whole.