The India vs Australia clash in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy is all set to shatter records left, right and center as fans are expected to flood the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. A crowd of 110, 000 fans are set to attend the Day 1 of the Ahmedabad Test while that number is expected to rise to 132, 000. The Test match in Ahmedabad will have a bearing on the Indian side as they will try to secure a place in the final of the World Test Championship (WTC) with a win.
Record crowd to be in attendance
The fourth Test between India and Australia could be played in front of a possible record crowd in Ahmedabad. The largest attendance for a single day of Test cricket is 91,112 – a record set during the fourth game between Australia and England at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in the 2013-14 Ashes series.
But that tally could be shattered at the 132,000 capacity Ahmedabad stadium, named after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who will attend the first day’s play on Thursday (March 8) along with his Australian counterpart, Anthony Albanese. More than 110,000 people are expected on the opening day at the world’s largest cricket stadium.
“It’s a really exciting opportunity for us this week to play some really good cricket. We are 2-1 up in the series and we’d like to maintain that or certainly try to go one better. Obviously (we will) try and see if we can seal the World Test Championship qualification on our own and not have to rely on other people,” Indian coach Rahul Dravid said while addressing the contest.
“Whatever the wicket is, it honestly doesn’t matter. There is just a lot of talk about pitches all the time. It is the same for both teams. Sometimes it does get more challenging. It is more challenging for the bowlers at times…it is more challenging for the batsmen at times. You know wickets are like that, whatever it is, we have to learn to play on them. We have to learn to adjust and you know we have played on some challenging wickets overseas as well whenever we go. I mean (we have) played on some wickets in South Africa recently where the spinner was completely taken out of the game. So like I said, everyone is trying to produce wickets that eventually you want results in these games.”
“Regarding the security arrangements in the stadium, we have deployed than 200 police officials and 3,000 police personnel. This includes plain-clothes and women officers. Additionally, there is a commando team. For checking-in, there are teams of DFMD (Door Frame Metal Detector)- HHMD (Hand Held Metal Detector) and sniffer dogs,” Deputy Commissioner Of Police, Niraj Kumar Badgujar said.
WTC final place up for grabs
India beat Australia in Nagpur and New Delhi to take a 2-0 lead in the four-Test series for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, with their spinners dominating both matches, but Australia hit back to claim a nine-wicket victory in Indore last week. That result earned Australia their place in the World Test Championship final at The Oval in June and India can join them with a victory.
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