Crowds throng Wankhede for opening day of India-England Test

Despite being a busy Thursday here, a large number of fans thronged the Wankhede stadium to witness the opening day of the India-England fourth Test match which commenced here today.
More than half of seats in MCA Pavilion and the Garware Pavilion, which are adjacent to the dressing rooms and the Divecha Pavillion were occupied despite local boy Ajinkya Rahane missing from the team due to an injury which he sustained yesterday during a practise session yesterday.
Another local boy, Shardul Thakur, who was named as a back-up for Mohammed Shami, did not make it to the playing 11, but that too did not affect the crowd.

A MCA office-bearer told PTI that the attendance in the stadium on the first day was about 15,000 which he termed as "decent".
"We expect the crowds to be more when India come to bat in the first innings. People are queueing up to purchase daily tickets. We are also expecting that the crowd will obviously be more on Saturday and Sunday," said the official.
Mumbai is hosting a Test match after three years with the last one being the 200th and farewell Test of cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar.