The International Cricket Council (ICC) announced the schedule for the ODI Cricket World Cup 2023 on June 27. The tournament will begin on October 5 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, where the defending champions, England, will face New Zealand, who were the finalists in the previous two editions of the tournament.
The entire tournament will be played in a round-robin format where all 10 teams will face the other nine teams once. The teams that manage to secure a place in the top four of the points table after the end of the league stage will qualify for the knockout stages, which will begin from November 15. Winners of the semi-final will lock horns in the summit clash on November 19 at the Narendra Modi Stadium.
During a discussion on Star Sports, eminent former cricketers, were asked to pick their title contenders for the upcoming marquee event. Surprisingly, Sunil Gavaskar, the former Indian skipper, has not picked India as the title contender, especially considering that India will be hosting the quadrennial global event.
“How many did you say – two or three? England, Australia and Pakistan,” the cricketer-turned- commentator said.
Indian veteran off-spinner Harbhajan Singh chose India instead of Pakistan among his top three favourites.
“For me, because it is a pressure tournament, if I choose three teams, it will be England, Australia and India. I feel these three teams can be the contenders for the tournament. Because this tournament is in India, I will not underrate India,” Harbhajan said.
Former BCCI president Sourav Ganguly, while agreeing with Harbhajan’s selections, added Pakistan as an additional title contender for the 2023 ODI World Cup.
“I also have the same three. Give me four – I will keep Pakistan as the fourth. So England, Australia, India and Pakistan,” Ganguly said.
Matthew Hayden has expressed his expectation that Pakistan, India and Australia will be three of the semi-finalists in the 2023 ODI World Cup. He further mentioned that England’s formidable batting lineup and their impressive performances in recent global tournaments make them strong contenders as well.
“I really believe that Pakistan, India and Australia will be in that final three. Of course, England should be there because of their power hitting and the fact that they are also really good in their championship playing,” the former Australian opener said.
On the other hand, ex-India opening batter Virender Sehwag and Sri Lankan spin-bowling legend Muttiah Muralitharan, also picked their contenders during an ICC media event where the schedule for the ODI World Cup 2023 was announced on Tuesday (June 27).
After releasing the fixture list, Muralitharan was asked to pick his four possible semi-finalists. The star off-spinner responded by picking India, Australia, England and Pakistan as his possible four contenders. Meanwhile, Sehwag has placed his bets on India, Pakistan, England and Australia.
Notably, the hosts India will begin their campaign with a challenging match against Australia in Chennai on October 8.
