India vs England: All you need to know about Motera Stadium, world's largest cricket venue ahead of pink-ball Test

The stadium has a seating capacity of 1,10,000 and is the world's largest cricket stadium and second-largest sports ground in world.

The Rungrado May Day Stadium in Pyongyang, North Korea, with a seating capacity of 1,14,000 is the world's largest stadium.

After being donated 100 acres of land on the banks of the Sabarmati river in 1982 by the Gujarat government, the Motera Stadium came into existence.

The construction work was completed within nine months and prior to that, international cricket matches were played at Ahmedabad's Municipal Corporation Stadium.

As for its reconstruction, the work at Sardar Patel Stadium started in 2016. According to various media reports, the proposal for the new Stadium was proposed by Narendra Modi, when he was president of the Gujarat Cricket Association and Chief Minister of Gujarat.

The principal contractor for designing and rebuilding the Motera Stadium was Larsen and Toubro. 

The new Motera Stadium - spread across 63 acres - has three entry points and has 76 corporate boxes with a seating capacity of 25 each. It also has an Olympic-size swimming pool and four dressing rooms. 

The new stadium does not have floodlights but instead has LED lights on the roof. The roofing has been designed by consulting and engineering firm Walter P Moore. 

PTFE, or polytetrafluoroethylene, Teflon-coated woven fibreglass, was stretched across a circumferential inner tension ring and an outer compression ring. These rings float between the bowl and the roof via radial cable spokes to allow for movement in case of seismic activity.

In the past, till August 19, 2017, the Motera Stadium before its reconstruction had hosted 12 Tests, 23 ODIs and one T20 International.

The first match witnessed by the stadium was a One-Day International (ODI) in the 1984-85 India vs Australia bilateral series, which India lost.

The Sardar Patel Stadium was also one of the venues for the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy. It hosted five of the 15 games. 

In fact, Motera Stadium has always been a venue whenever India has hosted an ICC World Cup. 

The first was played between England and New Zealand during the 1996 World Cup. In the 2011 World Cup, India defeated Australia in the quarterfinals here.

In 2011, India had gone on to become the champions after defeating Pakistan in the semi-final and Sri Lanka in the grand finale.

Test records:

Highest innings total: 760-7 (dec) by Sri Lanka against India in second innings on November 16, 2009.

Lowest innings total: 76 by India against South Africa in the first innings on April 3, 2008.

Highest individual score: Sri Lanka's Mahela Jayawardene 275 in 435 balls.

ODI records: 

Highest total: 365-2 by South Africa against India on February 27, 2010.

Lowest total: 85 by Zimbabwe against West Indies on October 8, 2006

Highest individual score: Sourav Ganguly's 144 in 152 balls during India vs Zimbabwe on December 5, 2000.

Sunil Gavaskar had completed his 10,000 runs in Tests in 1986–87 against Pakistan.

Kapil Dev had surpassed Sir Richard Hadlee's 431 wickets record in Tests. He had become the highest wicket-taker in Test cricket at that time.

Sachin Tendulkar, in October 1999, scored his first Test double-hundred against New Zealand.

Sachin Tendulkar had also become the first-ever cricketer to score 18,000 runs in One day cricket against Australia during the 2011 Cricket World Cup.

(All photos from Twitter)