WATCH | Cricket Diplomacy: PM Modi, Australian PM Albanese at Gujarat Stadium for India-Australia 4th Test

New Delhi, Mar 9: In what can be called an act of cricket diplomacy, Prime Minster Narendra Modi and Australian PM Anthony Albanese arrived at the stadium to watch the first day of the fourth Test.

 

PM Modi presented the Test cap to India captain Rohit Sharma while the Australian PM handed the 'Baggy Green' to Aussie skipper Steve Smith.

 

Both the prime ministers were greeted with loud cheers before the starte of the match as they took a lap of honour across the massive sports arena to celebrate 75 years of friendship between India and Australia.

 

BCCI president Roger Binny felicitated the Australian Prime Minister while the BCCI secretary Jay Shah felicitated the India Prime Minister.Besides, some traditional music and dance followed the felicitation, with the crowd cheering.

 

 

 

"One of the things that bind both countries is cricket and it will be great to see the leaders of India and Australia on day one of the matches in Ahmedabad," Australian High Commissioner Barry O'Farrell said.

 

 

After winning the toss, Smith said, "We are going to have a bat, playing with the same team. Looks like a nice surface, does look like a good wicket. The guys performed well last week. We'll wait and see (whether he will lead Australia in India again)."

 

"We would have batted first. We know what needs to be done. Siraj is rested and Shami is back. It's always nice to have some time off. We need to regroup as a team, you can reflect on so many things. Not the surface what we saw in the first three Tests, looks a good pitch, I hope it stays the same for all five days," Rohit said during the toss.

 

India is currently leading the series 2-1. However, the hosts need to secure an outright victory in the final Test to qualify for the final of the ICC World Test Championship where they will be facing Australia in London from June 7 onwards.

 

India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Srikar Bharat(w), Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav

 

Australia (Playing XI): Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith(c), Peter Handscomb, Cameron Green, Alex Carey(w), Mitchell Starc, Todd Murphy, Matthew Kuhnemann and Nathan Lyon.