Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad: pitch report, records and stats

A par first-innings total in an IPL match at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium is about 195. That is a little above what the rest of the league manages, which makes Uppal a good batting ground. What makes it an unusual one is where those runs arrive. Since 2023 Hyderabad scores faster than the rest of the league in the powerplay and faster again through the middle overs, and then it scores slower than everyone else at the death. Of the twelve IPL venues to have staged at least eight matches in that time, it is the only one that does all three.

The numbers below are worked out from the ball-by-ball record of all 90 IPL matches played at the ground between 2008 and the end of the 2026 season, and from ESPNcricinfo’s full ground aggregates for its six Tests, ten ODIs and four completed T20Is, the latest of them West Indies’ win on 14 October 2026. Where a figure covers only part of the ground’s history, the article says so.

Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium: the basics

Location	Uppal, Hyderabad, Telangana
Opened	2003
Capacity	Designed for 55,000; match-day capacity about 39,200
Owned and operated by	Hyderabad Cricket Association
Ends	VVS Laxman End (formerly the North End) and Pavilion End
Floodlights	Installed 2008, replaced with LED units in the 2023 renovation
First Test	12-16 November 2010, India v New Zealand
First ODI	16 November 2005, India v South Africa
First T20I	6 December 2019, India v West Indies
Home teams	Hyderabad; Sunrisers Hyderabad since 2013, and Deccan Chargers before them
Matches staged	6 Tests, 10 ODIs, 4 T20Is, 90 IPL games

It is usually called Uppal after the suburb it sits in, and the ground is often written up as a spin-friendly Test venue that happens to host a lot of white-ball cricket. The Test half of that is fair. The white-ball half has changed a great deal since 2023 and most pitch reports have not caught up.

What kind of pitch is the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium?

In the IPL, a good one, and it has got better fast. The first-innings average across all 90 matches is 168.7. Restrict it to the 26 matches played since the start of 2023 and it is 194.7, a jump of 26 runs. That puts Hyderabad third of the ten grounds to have staged at least twenty IPL matches since 2023, behind Eden Gardens on 197.4 and the Wankhede on 195.2, and a fraction ahead of the Chinnaswamy and Jaipur, both on 194.5.

The ground has also produced a remarkable number of run-gluts. Three of the eight highest match aggregates in IPL history have come at Uppal: 528 runs when Sunrisers Hyderabad made 286 for 6 against Rajasthan Royals on 23 March 2025, 523 when they made 277 for 3 and Mumbai Indians replied with 246 for 5 on 27 March 2024, and 492 when Punjab Kings made 245 and Sunrisers chased it down on 12 April 2025. No other ground has more than two in that top eight. The league record, 549, belongs to the Chinnaswamy.

The innings that does not accelerate

Split the last four IPL seasons into phases and set Hyderabad against every other ground in the league over the same period, and the shape is clear.

Phase	Hyderabad	Rest of the league	Difference
Powerplay, overs 1-6	9.78	9.45	+0.33
Middle, overs 7-15	9.28	8.86	+0.42
Death, overs 16-20	10.62	10.88	-0.26

The four grounds closest to Hyderabad on first-innings average all pull away from the field in the last five overs rather than falling behind it. Eden Gardens is +0.83 at the death, Sawai Mansingh +0.38, the Wankhede +0.36 and the Chinnaswamy +0.30. Other venues do finish slowly, the Chepauk at -0.94 and the Ekana at -0.61, but they are slow for the whole twenty overs. Of the twelve grounds Hyderabad is the only one that is clearly ahead of the field in both the powerplay and the middle overs and behind it at the death.

The practical version of that is simple enough. A side batting first at Uppal is usually further ahead at the fifteen-over mark than the scoreboard elsewhere would suggest, and usually adds less in the last five than the opposition analyst has budgeted for. It is a ground where the first two thirds of the innings decides the total.

Where the extra runs come from

Not from six-hitting, which is the surprise. Since 2023 Hyderabad has produced 7.74 sixes per 100 balls against 7.67 for the rest of the league, a gap of almost nothing. The fours are where the difference sits: 14.13 per 100 balls against 13.36. And batters last longer here, 19.9 balls per dismissal against 18.6.

So Uppal’s totals are built on placement and survival rather than power. That is worth setting against the Chinnaswamy, where the same measurement runs the other way, more sixes and fewer fours, because the square boundaries there are short enough to turn a well-timed four into a six. At Uppal the reward sits in the gaps rather than over the rope, and an extra 1.3 balls per wicket buys a lot of them.

Should you bat or bowl first at Uppal?

Captains have chosen to field 52 times and to bat 38, and the record does not really justify the preference. Across the 90 IPL matches the side batting second has won 47 and the side batting first 41, with one tie decided by a super over and one match abandoned. That is close to a coin toss, and closer than the toss behaviour implies.

In the longer formats the picture is different. In six Tests the side batting first has won four, lost one and drawn one, and every captain who has won the toss here has batted. In ten ODIs the side batting first has won six.

Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium IPL records

Record	Detail
Highest total	Sunrisers Hyderabad 286/6 v Rajasthan Royals, 23 March 2025
Lowest all-out total	Delhi Daredevils 80 v Sunrisers Hyderabad, 4 May 2013
Highest individual score	Abhishek Sharma 141 off 55 balls v Punjab Kings, 12 April 2025
Best bowling	Alzarri Joseph 6/12 v Sunrisers Hyderabad, 6 April 2019
Most runs at the ground	David Warner, 1,623
Most wickets at the ground	Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 48
First-innings average	168.7 all-time, 194.7 since 2023

Alzarri Joseph’s 6 for 12 came on his IPL debut, which is still the best analysis in the competition’s history. Abhishek Sharma’s 141 is one of two hundreds he has made at his home ground, the other a 135 from 68 balls in April 2026.

Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium Test records

Record	Detail
Highest total	India 687/6d v Bangladesh, February 2017
Lowest all-out total	West Indies 127, October 2018
Highest individual score	Brendon McCullum 225 v India, November 2010
Best bowling in an innings	Tom Hartley 7/62 v India, January 2024
Best bowling in a match	Ravichandran Ashwin 12/85 v New Zealand, August 2012
Most runs	Cheteshwar Pujara, 510
Most wickets	Ravichandran Ashwin, 33
Highest partnership	370 for the second wicket, Cheteshwar Pujara and Murali Vijay v Australia, March 2013

The most recent Test here is also the one that most changed how the ground reads. England arrived in January 2024, conceded a first-innings lead of 190, and won by 28 runs. Ollie Pope made 196 in the second innings and Tom Hartley, on debut, took 7 for 62 as India were bowled out for 202 chasing 231. It remains the only Test India have lost at this ground.

ODI and T20I records at Uppal

Ten ODIs, at 5.82 runs an over, and the ground has not staged one since the 2023 World Cup. Australia’s 350 for 4 in November 2009 is the highest total, England’s 174 all out in 2011 the lowest, and Shubman Gill’s 208 from 149 balls against New Zealand on 18 January 2023 the highest individual score.

Four completed T20Is, and they have been extraordinary. The ground runs at 10.88 an over in the format, the highest rate of any venue in India with three or more men’s T20Is since 2015, more than eight-tenths of a run an over clear of the next one, and nearly four runs an over quicker than Cuttack at the bottom of the same table. A fifth match, against Australia in October 2017, was abandoned without a ball bowled. India made 297 for 6 against Bangladesh here on 12 October 2024, with Sanju Samson scoring 111 from 47 balls, and that is still the ground’s highest T20I total.

Date	Match	Batting first	Batting second	Result
6 Dec 2019	India v West Indies	West Indies 207/5	India 209/4 (18.4 ov)	India won by 6 wickets
25 Sep 2022	India v Australia	Australia 186/7	India 187/4 (19.5 ov)	India won by 6 wickets
12 Oct 2024	India v Bangladesh	India 297/6	Bangladesh 164/7	India won by 133 runs
14 Oct 2026	India v West Indies	West Indies 247/3	India 223	West Indies won by 24 runs

The most recent of them, on 14 October 2026, was India’s first T20I defeat at Uppal. Shai Hope made 102 not out from 50 balls, nine of them hit for six, and West Indies reached 247 for 3, the second-highest T20I total at the ground. India got to 223 in reply, Samson adding 56 from 23 balls, but Keemo Paul took 5 for 41, the first five-wicket haul in a T20I here. The previous best was Ravi Bishnoi’s 3 for 30 against Bangladesh. The 470 runs in the match are a ground record for the format, nine more than the 2024 Bangladesh game, and the result levelled the series at 2-2 before the decider in Bengaluru on 17 October.

The T20I record gives no clear answer on the toss either. The side batting first has won two of the four and the chasing side two. India have won the toss in all four, and the toss winner won the first three before West Indies broke the run.

The short version

Bat first if the pitch looks dry, because 195 is par and because sides here tend to be further ahead at fifteen overs than they look. Expect a quick powerplay, an unusually quick middle period and a death phase that is slower than the league. Expect fours rather than sixes. And treat the old description of Uppal as a spinner’s ground as a Test-match observation that says very little about what happens under lights.

More venue guides in this series: Barabati Stadium, Cuttack, Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru, Eden Gardens, Kolkata and MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai.

More cricket ground guides and analysis