Barabati Stadium, Cuttack: pitch report, records and stats

Barabati Stadium behaves like two different grounds depending on the format. A par first-innings score in a one-day international at Cuttack is now well above 300, and the five ODIs played here since 2011 have averaged 314.8 batting first, the third-highest of any Indian venue over that span. A par score in a T20 international is about 150. Across the four men’s T20Is staged here the ground has produced 7.08 runs an over, the lowest rate of any venue in India since 2015, and three of the eight innings have ended with a side bowled out for under 100.

That split is the single most useful thing to know before a match at Cuttack, and no pitch report we could find states it. What follows is worked out from ESPNcricinfo’s complete ground aggregates for all 20 ODIs, four T20Is and two Tests, and from the ball-by-ball record of the seven IPL matches played here. Where a number covers only part of the ground’s history, the article says so.

Barabati Stadium: the basics

Location	Barabati Fort area, Cuttack, Odisha
Opened	1958
Capacity	Listed at 45,000; the Odisha Cricket Association announced a reduction of about 2,500 seats in late 2025 to widen seats from 19 to 22 inches
Owner	Government of Odisha and the Odisha Olympic Association
Operated by	Odisha Cricket Association
Ends	Mahanadi River End and Kathajodi River End
First Test	4-7 January 1987, India v Sri Lanka
First ODI	27 January 1982, India v England
First T20I	5 October 2015, India v South Africa
Home team	Odisha
Matches staged	2 Tests, 20 ODIs, 4 T20Is, 7 IPL games

The ground takes its name from the fourteenth-century Barabati Fort beside it, built by the Ganga dynasty and named with the Odia for “twelve gates”. The two ends are named for the rivers Cuttack sits between, the Mahanadi to the north and the Kathajodi to the south. Barabati is a multi-sport venue rather than a dedicated cricket stadium, used for football and hockey and for concerts, which is part of why it has never settled into a regular international rotation the way Kolkata or Mumbai have.

What kind of pitch is Barabati Stadium?

A good batting surface with true bounce, and one that has got markedly better for batting in 50-over cricket over the last fifteen years. The first-innings average across all 20 ODIs is 252.1, which sounds modest until you notice that the ground has been staging internationals since 1982 and that half of those matches were played before 2000. Restrict the sample to the five ODIs since 2011 and the first-innings average is 314.8.

Set against the rest of the country over the same period, that puts Cuttack third. Only Indore, at 346.5 from six matches, and Mumbai, at 322.3 from thirteen, have produced more.

Venue	ODIs since 2011	1st-innings average
Indore	6	346.5
Mumbai	13	322.3
Cuttack	5	314.8
Rajkot	5	314.2
Pune	11	309.7
Mohali	10	305.5
Hyderabad	7	297.0
Kolkata	14	279.1
Chennai	13	238.1

Then look at what the same pitch does in twenty overs. Across the four T20 internationals played at Cuttack since 2015 the run rate is 7.08. The average for men’s T20Is between full-member sides staged anywhere in India over the same period is 8.69. Lucknow is the only other Indian venue under 7.2. Hyderabad, at the other end of the table, runs at 10.55.

Four matches is a small sample and the caveat matters, but the shape of those four is consistent rather than freakish. India were bowled out for 92 in 2015, Sri Lanka for 87 in 2017, South Africa for 74 in 2025. The highest of the eight innings is 180.

One pattern is worth carrying into December. The three T20Is played here in October or December have each produced a total under 100. The one played in June, when South Africa chased 149 with ten balls to spare, did not.

Barabati Stadium ODI records

Record	Detail
Highest team total	India 381/6 v England, 19 January 2017
Highest total batting second	England 366/8 v India, 19 January 2017
Lowest all-out total	West Indies 169 v India, 24 January 2007
Lowest score of any kind	Pakistan 148/9 v England, 22 October 1989
Highest individual score	Mohammad Azharuddin 153* off 150 balls v Zimbabwe, 9 April 1998
Highest partnership	275* for the fourth wicket, Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja v Zimbabwe, 9 April 1998
Highest successful chase	India 316/6 v West Indies, 22 December 2019
Results	Chasing side has won 13 of 20

Azharuddin’s 153 not out is the highest score he made in one-day internationals, and he made it here. The stand he shared with Ajay Jadeja that afternoon, 275 unbroken for the fourth wicket, was a world record for any wicket in an ODI at the time. India made 301 for 3 and won by 32 runs. It is the sort of record that a ball-by-ball archive starting in 2007 would never surface, which is worth remembering when a venue preview quotes only recent numbers.

The chase record is the other number to carry into a match here. Thirteen of the twenty ODIs at Cuttack have been won by the side batting second, and the ground has twice seen a target above 300 hauled down, by India against West Indies in 2019 and again against England in February 2025.

The night Cuttack produced 747 runs

On Thursday 19 January 2017 India made 381 for 6 against England and England replied with 366 for 8. India were 25 for 3 when MS Dhoni joined Yuvraj Singh. Yuvraj made 150 from 127 balls, Dhoni 134 from 122, and the pair put on 256 for the fourth wicket. Jason Roy answered with 82, Eoin Morgan hit 102 from 81 and Moeen Ali 55 from 43, and England finished 15 short on 366 for 8. Chris Woakes had taken 4 for 60 earlier in the day.

747 runs in a hundred overs remains comfortably the most this ground has produced in a match, and the two highest totals in Barabati Stadium’s ODI history were both made that evening.

Barabati Stadium T20I records

Date	Match	Scores	Result
5 Oct 2015	India v South Africa	India 92, South Africa 96/4	South Africa won by 6 wickets
20 Dec 2017	India v Sri Lanka	India 180/3, Sri Lanka 87	India won by 93 runs
12 Jun 2022	India v South Africa	India 148/6, South Africa 149/6	South Africa won by 4 wickets
9 Dec 2025	India v South Africa	India 175/6, South Africa 74	India won by 101 runs

The highest T20I total here is India’s 180 for 3 in 2017, built on KL Rahul’s 61 from 48 balls. The lowest is South Africa’s 74 all out in December 2025, when they lasted 12.3 overs chasing 176. Heinrich Klaasen’s 81 from 46 balls in 2022 is the highest individual score, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s 4 for 13 in the same match the best bowling.

Three of the four matches have been won by a margin that reads as a mismatch rather than a contest. That is what a bowling ground looks like in a format built for batting.

Barabati Stadium Test records

Cuttack has staged two Tests and is unlikely to stage a third. India beat Sri Lanka by an innings and 67 runs in January 1987, making 400 with Dilip Vengsarkar scoring 166, his highest Test score, and bowling Sri Lanka out for 191 and 142. The second, against New Zealand in November 1995, lost most of its playing time to rain and was drawn. Narendra Hirwani took 6 for 59 in New Zealand’s only innings, which is still the best bowling in a Test at the ground.

Is the IPL played at Barabati Stadium?

Not any more. Seven IPL matches were played at Cuttack between 2010 and 2014, first as an adopted home venue for the Deccan Chargers and then, in 2014, for Kings XI Punjab and Kolkata Knight Riders. The last of them was on 14 May 2014, when Kolkata chased down Mumbai’s 141 for 5 with six wickets in hand.

The highest IPL total at the ground is Kings XI Punjab’s 231 for 4 against Chennai Super Kings on 7 May 2014, an innings shaped by Glenn Maxwell’s 90 from 38 balls. Punjab won that one by 44 runs. The first-innings average across the seven matches is 167.7, which was a fair score in 2014 and would be well under par in the modern league.

India’s record at Cuttack

India have played 18 of the ground’s 20 ODIs and won 14 of them. More striking is the run they are on: they have won their last eight ODIs at Barabati Stadium and have not lost one here since 6 November 2003, when New Zealand chased 247 with 15 balls to spare. That is a 22-year unbeaten stretch at a ground India visit roughly once every two or three years.

The T20I record is less kind. India have won two of four at Cuttack, and both defeats came against South Africa.

The next match at Barabati Stadium

Cuttack hosts the second T20I of Sri Lanka’s tour of India on Thursday 24 December 2026, a 7pm start. On the evidence of the four T20Is played here, a side winning the toss should think hard before assuming this is a chase, and 170 is likely to be worth more than the scoreboard suggests. The December date matters too: every T20I at this ground played in the cooler months has produced a collapse.

The short version

In 50-over cricket Cuttack is one of the best batting grounds in India and a reliable chase, with a first-innings average since 2011 that only Indore and Mumbai beat. In twenty-over cricket it is the slowest venue in the country and has produced three sub-100 totals in four matches. Treat any pitch report that gives Barabati Stadium a single character as one that has not looked at the formats separately.

More venue guides in this series: Holkar Stadium, Indore, Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai, Eden Gardens, Kolkata and Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru.

Read more cricket venue guides and features

Featured photo: Dibyangshu SARKAR / AFP