The fourth and final Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy between India and Australia got underway at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Thursday (March 9).

For the series-decider, India Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese marked their presence at the world’s largest cricket stadium on the opening day.

Modi and Albanese celebrated the 75 years of friendship between India and Australia through cricket.

A dais was set up on one end in front of the sightscreen for a short function before the start of the match. Both PMs were presented with framed artwork by the BCCI Secretary Jay Shah and the board President Roger Binny.

Narendra Modi and Anthony Albanese presented special caps to the captains of their respective countries – Rohit Sharma and Steve Smith. The two PMs also did an honourary lap of the ground ahead of the toss.

Smith, who is standing in for Pat Cummins, won the flip of the unique coin made for the occasion and elected to bat first.

While the visitors fielded an unchanged side from the previous match, India skipper Rohit Sharma confirmed that Mohammad Shami replaced Mohammed Siraj in the playing XI.

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, Nathan Lyon

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