Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi acquired a rockstar reception from a packed Indian cricket crowd as they rode an uncommon mode of transport earlier than the opening session of Thursday’s Test match.
The two leaders adorned a big hovercraft with bats and wickets on the again of it – a ‘batmobile’ of a special variety – as they had been launched at Ahmedabad’s Sardar Patel Stadium, celebrating “75 years of friendship through cricket”.
The duo waved and saluted the bumper crowd, which was anticipated to be in extra of 100,000 to attain a Test match file.
The official file for highest attendance for a single day of Test cricket is 91,112 on the primary day of the Ashes Boxing Day conflict between Australia and England on the Melbourne Cricket Ground in December 2013.
The toss of the coin – a specifically minted merchandise to have fun the event – was delayed by 4 minutes to accommodate the political assembly between the 2 leaders.
Chants of “Modi, Modi, Modi“ echoed around the ground as they would for cricket icon Virat Kohli.
When the toss finally went ahead, acting Australia captain Steve Smith called correctly and elected to bat first.
Mr Albanese linked arms with Smith during the Aussie national anthem before the on-field action finally got underway.
“It says how valued the relationship with Australia is that the government of India and Prime Minister Modi have put such a major effort into making us feel so welcome,” Mr Albanese stated earlier than the occasion.
Mr Albanese will later fly to Mumbai, the place he’ll participate in a roundtable with Australian and Indian chief executives and promote Australian merchandise at an expo.
Australia took an unchanged XI into the conflict, together with their spin trio of Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy and Matt Kuhnemann.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
