Pallekele International Cricket Stadium: pitch report, records and stats

The Pallekele International Cricket Stadium sits in the hills outside Kandy and is Sri Lanka’s second home. It is the ground that took over from the coast when the island wanted a venue with cooler evenings and a bigger bowl, and in February 2026 it staged six matches at the men’s T20 World Cup. This page is the full picture: where it is, what the pitch does, and every Test, ODI and T20I record set there, all checked against ESPNcricinfo’s ground records.

Pallekele International Cricket Stadium: the basics

Location	Pallekele, near Kandy, Sri Lanka
Also known as	Kandy Cricket Stadium (Sri Lanka Cricket’s official name remains Pallekele International Cricket Stadium)
Owner	Sri Lanka Cricket
Opened	27 November 2009
Capacity	35,000
Ends	Hunnasgiriya End and Rikillagaskada End
Floodlights	Yes, day/night matches are staged
First Test	1–5 December 2010, Sri Lanka v West Indies
First ODI	8 March 2011, New Zealand v Pakistan (2011 World Cup)
First T20I	6 August 2011, Sri Lanka v Australia
Home teams	Sri Lanka; Kandy Falcons (Lanka Premier League)

It became the 104th ground in the world to host Test cricket in December 2010, and has since staged matches at the 2011 World Cup, the 2012 World T20 and the 2026 T20 World Cup. Kandy sits in Sri Lanka’s central highlands, and that altitude is what gives Pallekele its cooler evenings, and its dew.

Pallekele pitch report: what to expect

Pallekele is a fair surface rather than a dramatic one. The new ball does something: there is carry and a little seam movement in the first few overs, more than you get at Colombo, and then it flattens out and becomes comfortable for stroke play. As the ball softens, the cutters and the slower balls become the more dangerous option than raw pace.

The two things that genuinely shape a match here are the surface drying out across a series and the evening dew. Because the same square is reused for back-to-back fixtures, the third match of a series grips noticeably more than the first, and spin becomes the control option. Under lights, dew can undo that, because the ball skids on and gets harder to grip, which is the usual argument for bowling first.

Should you bat first or chase at Pallekele?

Almost every pitch guide says “chase”. The record says otherwise. Across all 36 men’s T20Is played at the ground, the side batting first has won 18 and the side chasing 14, with three tied matches and one no-result. That is 56% of decided games to the team setting a target, a genuine if narrow, edge to batting first, not the chase-first venue it is usually described as.

Three ties in 36 matches is the other number worth sitting with. Sri Lanka tied with New Zealand here in 2012, New Zealand tied with West Indies nine days later, and Sri Lanka tied with India in 2024. Pallekele produces close finishes at a rate few grounds match.

The par score. Across the 35 completed first innings in T20Is at the ground, the average first-innings total is 170. That is the number to judge a total against: much above 180 and the chasing side is behind, much below 150 and the bowling side is. In ODIs the range is far wider: totals here run from Zimbabwe’s 70 all out to Sri Lanka’s 381 for 3, and in Tests the surface tends to last, with four of the nine Tests played here ending in draws.

Pallekele T20I records and stats

• Highest total: Australia 263/3 v Sri Lanka, 6 September 2016. Glenn Maxwell’s 145 not out remains the highest individual T20I score at the ground; Australia won by 85 runs. Sri Lanka’s 225/5 against Oman on 12 February 2026 is the next best.
• Lowest total: New Zealand 88 all out in 16 overs v Sri Lanka, 6 September 2019, chasing 126.
• Most runs: Kusal Mendis, 526 runs in 16 matches between 2016 and 2026, at an average of 32.87 with four fifties.
• Most wickets: Lasith Malinga, 18 wickets in 12 matches at 19.33, including two five-wicket hauls.
• Best bowling: Ajantha Mendis 6/16 v Australia, 8 August 2011. Malinga’s 5/6 against New Zealand on 6 September 2019, the spell in which he took four wickets in four balls, is second.
• Matches played: 36, of which nine came in 2026 alone.

Kusal Mendis passing Tillakaratne Dilshan as the ground’s leading T20I run-scorer is recent: Dilshan’s 334 held the record for years and now sits fourth, behind Mendis, Kusal Janith Perera (415) and Pathum Nissanka (411).

Pallekele ODI records and stats

• Highest total: Sri Lanka 381/3 v Afghanistan, 9 February 2024. This replaced South Africa’s 363/7 from 2018, which is still quoted as the record in a lot of places.
• Lowest total: Zimbabwe 70 all out v Sri Lanka, 21 January 2022, chasing 255. Jeffrey Vandersay took 4 for 10.
• Highest individual score: Pathum Nissanka 210 not out v Afghanistan, 9 February 2024, in that same 381/3, the first ODI double-hundred by a Sri Lankan.
• Most runs: Tillakaratne Dilshan, 939 runs in 15 matches at 78.25, with five hundreds. Nissanka (818) and Kusal Mendis (811) are closing.
• Most wickets: Lasith Malinga, 24 wickets in 16 matches at 27.29, economy 5.45.
• Best bowling: Mitchell Johnson 6/31 for Australia, 10 August 2011. Thisara Perera’s 6/44 and Akila Dananjaya’s 6/54 are the only other six-wicket hauls at the ground.

Pallekele has hosted more than 40 men’s ODIs, the most recent being Sri Lanka’s win over Bangladesh on 8 July 2025. For the island’s other main international ground, see our records for the R Premadasa Stadium in ODIs and in T20 internationals.

Pallekele Test records and stats

Test cricket is the format the ground sees least. Only nine Tests have been played here, and none since May 2021, a five-year gap. Sri Lanka have won two, visiting sides three (England, India and Pakistan), and four have been drawn.

• Most runs: Dimuth Karunaratne, 713 runs in six Tests at 64.81, with three hundreds. No one else has reached 450.
• Highest individual score: Karunaratne’s 244 against Bangladesh in April 2021. Kusal Mendis (176), Younis Khan (171 not out) and Dhananjaya de Silva (166) follow.
• Largest victories: India by an innings and 171 runs in August 2017, and Sri Lanka by 209 runs against Bangladesh in May 2021.

The draw rate is the story: the surface rarely deteriorates fast enough to force a result inside five days, and Kandy’s weather takes time out of matches.

If you want the ground’s 50-over history broken out in more detail, we also keep a dedicated page on Pallekele’s ODI records.

Pallekele at the 2026 T20 World Cup

The ground staged six matches at the 2026 men’s T20 World Cup in February, including three Super Eights fixtures: England’s 51-run win over Sri Lanka on 22 February, England’s two-wicket win over Pakistan on 24 February, and Pakistan’s five-run win over Sri Lanka on 28 February. Earlier in the tournament Sri Lanka beat Oman by 105 runs and Australia by eight wickets, and Australia beat Oman by nine wickets.

That run of cricket, plus a three-match Sri Lanka v England T20I series immediately before it, means nine of the ground’s 36 T20Is were played inside a single month, and it is why several of the “records” you will find quoted elsewhere for this venue are out of date.

Pallekele International Cricket Stadium: quick answers

Where is the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium?
In Pallekele, about 15 km east of Kandy in Sri Lanka’s central hill country.

What is the capacity of the Pallekele stadium?
35,000. It opened on 27 November 2009 and is owned by Sri Lanka Cricket.

Is Pallekele a batting or bowling pitch?
Balanced, tilting towards batting once the ball is older. The average first-innings T20I score is 170, and the new ball offers a little more seam movement than most Sri Lankan surfaces.

Is it better to bat or bowl first at Pallekele?
Bat first, marginally: 18 of the 32 decided T20Is at the ground have gone to the side setting a target. The case for chasing is the evening dew, not the historical record.

What is the highest score at Pallekele?
Australia’s 263/3 in a T20I in 2016, and Sri Lanka’s 381/3 in an ODI in 2024. The highest individual scores are Maxwell’s 145 not out (T20I), Nissanka’s 210 not out (ODI) and Karunaratne’s 244 (Test).

Does Pallekele take spin?
Increasingly through a series, as the reused square dries out. Spinners are usually the control option rather than the strike option, and dew under lights can take that away.

What is the stadium also called?
Most commonly the Kandy Cricket Stadium. The Central Provincial Council voted in July 2010 to rename it after Muttiah Muralitharan, a Kandy native, and you will still see it called the Muttiah Muralitharan International Cricket Stadium, but Sri Lanka Cricket, the ICC and the scorecards all use Pallekele International Cricket Stadium.