The Sardar Patel Stadium in Motera near Ahmedabad, which has been dubbed the " world's largest cricket stadium" with a capacity of 110,000 people, was Wednesday renamed as the Narendra Modi Stadium. The stadium, that was popularly known as the Motera Stadium, was recently re-opened after extensive renovation with increased seating capacity.

It hosted its first international cricket match on Wednesday with India taking on England in a day-night Test match.

The stadium's new name was announced during an inauguration ceremony that was attended by President Ram Nath Kovind, Home Minister Amit Shah, Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju, and Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Secretary Jay Shah, the home minister's son, among others.

The stadium is located within the larger Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Sports Enclave in Gujarat's principal city which will have facilities for Olympic sports. Among the facilities that are set to be included in the enclave in addition to the cricket stadium is a multi-purpose stadium for athletics and football, a hockey stadium and outdoor practice fields. The enclave is also slated to include a host of indoor facilities including a swimming pool and velodrome along with facilities for beach volleyball and a boating centre.

The Narendra Modi Stadium surpasses the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) in Australia as the world's largest cricket stadium. The MCG has a maximum seating capacity of 100,024. It is also the second-largest stadium in the world overall, behind Rungrado 1st of May stadium in Pyonyang, North Korea which has an estimated capacity of nearly 1,15,000, IANS said. 

The sudden renaming of the stadium after a serving prime minister led to a lot of social media sparring between supporters and antagonists of Modi and his ruling BJP. Modi has been the three-time chief minister of Gujarat state before he became prime minister in 2014.

Former US president Donald Trump was felicitated in this stadium by Modi when the former came to India on an official visit in February 2020.