The second ODI of the ongoing Sri Lanka’s tour of India will be played in Kolkata on the day after tomorrow. With Wednesday being a travel day, teams will board a flight for a distance of some 1,000 km in spite of both the venues being in East India.
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While Guwahati had hosted an ODI after more than four years, Kolkata will be hosting one after more than five years on Thursday. The iconic venue, however, has hosted two Tests and five T20Is in this period.
India, who’ve participated in 21 out of the 30 ODIs played at this stadium, have won 12 and lost eight matches over the years. Sri Lanka, meanwhile, have won three and lost four out of their eight ODIs at the Eden Gardens.
The last India-Sri Lanka ODI in the city had been witness to current India captain Rohit Sharma scoring a world record 264 (173). With no current Sri Lankan player playing that match over eight years ago, don’t be astonished to see the absence of visiting players in the below mentioned records list.
Eden Gardens ODI records
Highest ODI run-scorers at this venue are Sachin Tendulkar (496), Mohammad Azharuddin (332), Virat Kohli (326), Aravinda de Silva (306) and Sharma (271). In addition to Kohli and Sharma, vice-captain Hardik Pandya (76) and wicket-keeper batter KL Rahul (11) are the other Indian batters part of the current squad to have scored ODI runs here.
Highest ODI wicket-takers at the Eden Gardens are Anil Kumble (14), Kapil Dev (14), Ravindra Jadeja (9), Javagal Srinath (8) and Ajit Agarkar (7). Pandya (5), Kuldeep Yadav (3), Yuzvendra Chahal (2) and Axar Patel (2) are the current Indian bowlers who have picked ODI wickets at this stadium.
Highest innings totals in Kolkata ODIs
| Score | Overs | Team | Opposition | Year |
| 404/5 | 50 | India | Sri Lanka | 2014 |
| 321/8 | 50 | England | India | 2017 |
| 317/3 | 48.1 | India | Sri Lanka | 2009 |
| 316/9 | 50 | India | England | 2017 |
| 315/6 | 50 | Sri Lanka | India | 2009 |
Innings totals in excess of 300 runs have been registered in nine out of 29 ODI innings at the Eden Gardens till date. Two out of these nine instances have come in successful run-chases with the hosts holding the record for the same for the third entry in the aforementioned table. The match is fondly remembered for former India batter Gautam Gambhir sharing his match award with Kohli.
It is noteworthy that teams batting first have won 18 Kolkata ODIs as compared to the teams batting second winning 11 times.
