Barsapara Cricket Stadium (Guwahati) Pitch Report, Results & Stats

Barsapara Cricket Stadium – Guwahati

Barsapara Cricket Stadium is one of the newer cricket stadiums that have come up in India in the recent years. It’s been built in a region where cricket is not the biggest sport as it’s located in Guwahati, Assam. The city had a stadium called the Nehru Stadium which was used for both football and cricket and had a capacity of 15,000. The Assam Govt. made a new stadium with a capacity of more than 35,000. Due to it being recently constructed, the Barsapara Cricket Stadium hasn’t hosted much international cricket. It has hosted two ODIs and two T20Is till April 2023. The first match played here was a T20I fixture between India and Australia in 2017. The visitors won the match easily and trounced India by 8 wickets. The first ODI hosted by the stadium was between India and West Indies in 2018. The stadium is yet to host a Test match though.

The venue was chosen to host a few matches of the Indian T20 League in 2020 as the home ground of Rajasthan, but due to the pandemic the tournament was halted midway and the stadium didn’t get to host any matches in 2020. However, in the Indian T20 League 2023, the stadium was allotted two matches of Rajasthan once again.

The Nature of the Pitch
This will be the first ever Indian T20 League where the stadium will host matches and that’s why there is no data related to the league. In T20s at Barsapara, teams have generally chosen to bowl first but the teams batting first have had more success at this venue since 2019. While big scores have been scored on some occasions on this pitch, in general it’s not the easiest of pitches to bat on. The average first inning score at this venue is 153 while the average first innings winning score has been 170 at this venue in T20s since 2019. Pacers have taken double the amount of wickets than spinners but both have been equally expensive. When the first match was played here, Australian skipper David Warner compared the stadium to the English cricket grounds where the new ball swung a lot.

General Information about the Stadium
The Barsapara Cricket Stadium is India’s 49th international cricket venue. It was inaugurated by Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal on 10 October 2017. The galleries in the stadium rise steeply, which is unusual for a stadium this big. Due to a strained relationship with the state’s association, Indian T20 League’s team Rajasthan had made a request to play a few of their matches in Guwahati in 2019 and was allowed to host some matches in 2020. The two ends are called Pavilion End and Media End.

History
It took seven years for the Barsapara Stadium to be completely constructed. For most of this duration, barring the last two years, the Assam Cricket Association (ACA) had been receiving grants from the BCCI. But when the incumbent Assam Cricket Asoociation committee took over in June 2016, they inherited a serious shortage of funds, and within a month of taking office were completely cut out of the BCCI’s payroll.

Trivia
Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma scored a 246-run partnership against West Indies in an ODI in 2018.
India chased down 323 runs in just 42 overs against West Indies in an ODI in 2018.
Virat Kohli has scored two centuries in two ODIs here.
The T20I between India and South Africa held in October 2022 was interrupted for a strange reason as a snake was found in the outfield.
David Miller scored a 47-ball century in a T20I against India although in a losing cause.