Abu Dhabi Knight Riders


The Abu Dhabi Knight Riders is a professional Twenty20 franchise cricket team that competes in the International League T20, a men's Twenty20 league hosted by the Emirates Cricket Board. The franchise is owned by the Knight Riders Group, a sporting subsidiary alliance between the Red Chillies Entertainment and the Mehta Group. Their home ground is the Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi.

History

In August 2022, the Emirates Cricket Board announced the establishment of the International League T20, a Twenty20 cricket competition to be started in 2023. The teams for the competition, representing 6 different cities of United Arab Emirates, including Abu Dhabi, were put up on auction in UAE in September 2022. The Abu Dhabi franchise was purchased & revealed by Kolkata Knight Riders, part of Knight Riders Franchise. The team unveiled their logo and jersey in January 2023, through their social media handles.

Home ground

The Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi serves as the home ground of the Abu Dhabi Knight Riders. It is operated by the Emirates Cricket Board and is the third-oldest cricket stadium in the country. It is also the second-largest stadium in the UAE in terms of crowd capacity, with over 20,000 seats. In 2021, The stadium hosted some matches of the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup as the tournament was shifted to UAE after the original hosts India were unable to host the tournament due to the outbreak of second-wave of COVID-19 in the whole country. The stadium also served as the home ground for the Kolkata Knight Riders during the 2020 and 2021 editions respectively.

Captains

PlayerTenureMatchesWonLostNR
Sunil Narine2023 - 2025329221
Andre Russell202411--
Jason Holder2025 - 20261046-

Knight Riders Group