The World’s largest cricketing arena, Motera Stadium, has been chosen to host a Day and Night Test between India and England in 2021. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) decided on hosting the Day and Night Test at their annual apex council meeting.
According to a report, the match will be one of the two Day and Night Test games that the Men in Blue will play in the coming future. The other game will be played against Australia in the upcoming tour. Known as Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Stadium, the Pink-ball Test match will take place in January-February 2021.
The President of the United States, Donald Trump, will be inaugurating the Motera Stadium on February 24. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also be present at the inauguration ceremony. Trump will be accompanied by his wife and First Lady, Melania Trump.
Built on 63 acres of land, the arena has a seating of approximately one lakh 10 thousand people. This is much higher than Australia’s iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground, which is considered to be te biggest cricket ground as of now.
MCG has a seating capacity of 90,000.
Recently, BCCI posted an aerial view of the stadium. As soon as the pictures surfaced online, the fans went berserk over the spectacular view of the stadium. “#MoteraStadium Ahmedabad, India. Seating capacity of more than 1,10,000 World’s largest #Cricket stadium,” BCCI tweeted along with the picture of the stadium.
#MoteraStadium
Ahmedabad, India 🇮🇳
Seating capacity of more than 1,10,000
World's largest #Cricket stadium pic.twitter.com/FKUhhS0HK5— BCCI (@BCCI) February 18, 2020
Various reports also suggest that the newly built stadium will also be hosting an exhibition match between Asia XI and World XI later this year.
The Indian Cricket Team will be hoping to get a game here as soon as possible and the fans would love to fill in large numbers to see their favorite team play at such a monumental ground.
In related news, the Virat Kohli-led side is now gearing up for the two-match Test series against New Zealand. After being thumped 3-0 in the ODI series, the Indian contingent will be looking to bounce back in the longest format of the game.
The Kiwis have called in right-arm pacer Matt Henry into the team for the first Test. Henry will replace seamer Neil Wagner as he will be traveling back to home for the birth of his child.
The first Test will commence from February 21 in Wellington.
New Zealand squad:
Kane Williamson (capt), Tom Blundell, Trent Boult, Colin de Grandhomme, Kyle Jamieson, Tom Latham, Daryl Mitchell, Henry Nicholls, Ajaz Patel, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor, Matt Henry, and BJ Watling.
India Test squad:
Virat Kohli (Captain), Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), Hanuma Vihari, Wriddhiman Saha (wicket-keeper), Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav, Mohammad Shami, Navdeep Saini, and Ishant Sharma.
