India vs Australia: PMs Narendra Modi and Anthony Albanese celebrate 75 years of cricketing relations - Watch

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Ahmedabad, March 9: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese on Thursday (March 9) arrived at the Narendra Modi Stadium to kick off the proceedings for the fourth Test at the Narendra Modi Stadium.

India and Australia are celebrating 75 years of friendship through cricket and the prime ministers of both nations were present at the world's biggest cricket stadium.

While Albanese presented a Baggy Green cap to Australia's stand-in captain Steve Smith, Modi handed over a special cap to India skipper Rohit Sharma. Some cultural performances were also held at the venue before the start of play in Ahmedabad.

Modi and Albanese also took a lap of honour in a specially designed golf cart. It was the same golf car on which the honourable PM Modi had also taken a lap of honour during the National Games 2022 at this very venue.

To ensure tight security at the venue due to the presence of two VVIPs, the Special Protection Group (SPG) took charge of the stadium.

One can expect a record 100,000 people to turn up on the opening day of the Test match, which would beat maximum attendance at the Eden Gardens (88,000-90,000) during Christmas Test matches before its capacity got reduced to 67,000.

Meanwhile, India made one change with Mohammed Shami making a return to the playing eleven and replacing Mohammed Siraj while Australia remain unchanged.

Having won the third Test in Indore by nine wickets, Smith and his band would be high on confidence and would be looking to dent India's chances of WTC Final qualification.

Both captains indicated they would have batted first if they won the toss. The Indian skipper claimed that the Ahmedabad track is "not a surface which we saw in the first three Tests" which were dominated by spin.

Australia maintained their three-spinner approach, with Nathan Lyon, Matthew Kuhnemann and Todd Murphy, alongside left-arm quick Mitchell Starc and all-rounder Cameron Green.