The MCG's world record for largest crowd to attend a day of Test cricket is likely to be shattered when an estimated 110,000 people pack into watch India and Australia in Ahmedabad.
The colossal stadium bearing the name of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will stage a spectacle like nothing witnessed before in cricket history for the opening of the fourth Test on Thursday.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will join Modi to celebrate "75 years of friendship through cricket" for a range of events before the match.
Fans are expected to be seated inside the 132,000-capacity Narendra Modi Stadium well before the leaders of the two countries arrive about an hour prior to play.
Albanese and Modi will be taken through the India-Australia Platinum Hall of Fame within the stadium before the prime ministers meet the players.
Australia captain Steve Smith and India skipper Rohit Sharma are expected to introduce all their players to both leaders ahead of the national anthems.
Albanese is expected to stay at the Ahmedabad colosseum for about an hour before moving on to other commitments in Mumbai and Delhi.
But, remarkably, according to reports, Modi will stay on to do some TV commentary on the match.
Locals were spotted driving a gold car around the arena on Tuesday, while a vehicle with wooden bats and stumps on the back was being tested out on Wednesday.
The sight screen was also erected, with giant photos of Albanese and Modi on the sign together.
A number of influential Australian business leaders, including Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce, Fortescue Metals boss Andrew Forrest and Commonwealth Bank chief executive Matt Comyn, have joined Albanese on his first trip to India as prime minister.
The final crowd figure will be a source of fascination with up to 85,000 of the day-one tickets in the 132,000-capacity stadium set aside for local families and students.
Initial fears that travelling Australian spectators could be locked out of having access to watch the start of the match were eased this week after they'd previously only been able to purchase tickets for days two to five.
The record attendance for a single day of Test cricket stands at 91,112 from the start of the 2013-14 Ashes battle at the MCG.
Australia offspinner Todd Murphy, who grew up in the border towns of Echuca and Moama, was looking forward to the challenge of playing in front of such a big crowd.
"It's going to be noisy, it's exciting though," Murphy said on Tuesday.
"I think everyone sort of looks forward to opportunities to play in front of those sort of crowds, it will be a great atmosphere.
After a near five-year rebuild, the stadium in the capital of the Indian state of Gujarat, reopened in February 2020.
The first event in the stadium was a political event when Donald Trump arrived in India, with the former US president infamously mispronouncing the names of cricket icons Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli during a speech.
The ground, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Stadium, was renamed after Modi ahead of the 2021 Test between India and England.
The attendance record for the stadium is 101,566 when Gujarat Titans defeated the Rajasthan Royals in last year's Indian Premier League final.
© AAP 2023