As India gets ready to play its second day and night, pink ball Test match at home against England in Ahmedabad on Wednesday, the refurbished Sardar Patel Stadium in Motera is grabbing all the spotlight. The largest cricket stadium in the world has left players from both the teams in awe.  

Spread over 63 acres, with a seating capacity of 1.10 lakh people, Motera in Sabarmati will tomorrow replace the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) of Australia as it can accommodate 90,000 people simultaneously. After the 'Statue of Unity' – the world's largest statue of Sardar Patel built in Gujarat – the state is going to set the new record of housing the world's largest stadium in cricket now.

Built at an estimated cost of Rs 800 crore, the stadium, a dream project of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is constructed by the Larsen & Toubro (L&T) company which also built the Statue of Unity in a short span of five years. The old Motera stadium, which was demolished in 2016, had a capacity of 54,000 spectators. The foundation stone for the new stadium was laid in January 2018.

A total of 11 clay pitches of six red and five black soils have been prepared in the stadium. It is the first stadium to use both coloured clay for main and practice pitches. In the event of rain, the pitch can be dried in only 30 minutes. An innovative feature of this stadium is that the 360-degree podium concourse at a height of nine meters provides a uniform view to the spectators from any stand.

It has 76 corporate boxes, an olympic size swimming pool, indoor academy, four dressing rooms, food courts and a clubhouse. The autographed bat collection of players and the 'Hall of Fame' gallery featuring photographs of world-renowned cricketers catches the eyeballs of the spectators.

The stadium will be inaugurated tomorrow by President Ram Nath Kovind in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.