The 13th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) had to move to UAE after a gap of 6 years due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, all the matches of IPL 2020 will be taking place across 3 popular venues in the country – Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Sharjah between September 19 to November 10. Among the three venues, Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dubai will be hosting 20 matches in the league stages, the second-most after Dubai in this year’s edition.

On the other hand, the Dubai International Cricket Stadium will host 24 matches, while Sharjah will host just 12 matches. The fixtures for the play-offs and the final are yet to be revealed by the BCCI.

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Sheikh Zayed Stadium has had the experience of hosting IPL matches as some of the games took place when the initial part of the tournament was shifted to UAE in 2014. However, this year, it’s going to be different as empty stands will not be a great sight for the players at the 20,000-strong venue. It remains to be seen if the authorities will be deciding to allow fans during the latter half of IPL.

The first-ever international match at the stadium was an ODI took place between the arch-rival India and Pakistan in 2006. Afghanistan and Scotland played the first international T20I in February 2010, while Pakistan locked horns with South Africa in the first-ever venue Test match at the venue in November 2010.

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In terms of the last five T20Is at the venue, four times the team which was chasing the target had managed to win the match while only in one match a team had managed to defend a score. Out of those four games when the team won during the chase, the winning team had lost the toss three times. The average first innings total was as low as 128 while the average score for the second innings is 127 and interestingly, almost every match went down to the wire.

IPL 2020 fixtures at Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi:

• Saturday 19th September: MI vs CSK – 19:30 IST
• Wednesday 23rd September: KKR vs MI – 19:30 IST
• Saturday 26th September: KKR vs SRH – 19:30 IST
• Tuesday 29th September: DC vs SRH – 19:30
• Thursday 1st October: KXIP vs MI – 19:30 IST
• Saturday 3rd October: RCB vs RR – 15:30 IST
• Tuesday 6th October: MI vs RR – 19:30 IST
• Wednesday 7th October: KKR vs CSK – 19:30 IST
• Saturday 10th October: KXIP vs KKR – 15:30 IST
• Sunday 11th October: MI vs DC – 19:30 IST
• Friday 16th October: MI vs KKR – 19:30 IST
• Sunday 18th October: SRH vs KKR – 15:30 IST
• Monday 19th October: CSK vs RR – 19:30 IST
• Wednesday 21st October: KKR vs RCB – 19:30 IST
• Saturday 24th October: KKR vs DC – 15:30 IST
• Sunday 25th October: RR vs MI – 19:30 IST
• Wednesday 28th October: MI vs RCB – 19:30 IST
• Friday 30th October: KXIP vs RR – 19:30 IST
• Sunday 1st November: CSK vs KXIP – 15:30 IST
• Monday 2nd November: DC vs RCB – 19:30 IST