The 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup will be the 13th edition of the Cricket World Cup, a One Day International (ODI) cricket tournament contested by men’s national teams and organized by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It is scheduled to be hosted by India during October and November 2023 and will be the first time the competition is held entirely in India.
Three previous editions were partially hosted there – 1987, 1996, and 2011. Originally, the tournament was scheduled to be played from 9 February to 26 March 2023; but in July 2020, it was announced that the tournament would be delayed to an October–November window, following the disruption of the qualification schedule due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
England are the defending champions they won the previous edition of world cup in 2019. Yes, India has a more chances to win this world cup because Indian batting order is looking very destructive and we also have a great spinners and young fast bowlers who will definitely help to win this world cup. India also has a great advantage of home and we also have a great record in India.
We have 20 matches in India before the start of the World Cup including IPL. These matches will prepare the Indian team and it will helping the Indian team to understand some factors like pitch situation, performance, team selection, availability of best playing eleven, selected bowlers and temperature of the day etc. In fact from the last 3 world cup home team was won the world
The reason why India couldn’t win the world cup this time around (2019) was lack of proper balance. If you compare this squad with 2011 squad, you will notice this difference.
With Sachin and Sehwag, we had two explosive openers. Rohit and Dhawan rightly matched this duo, but with Dhawan gone, India was at a tight spot. You can’t have two openers in KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma, both of them playing cautiously. One has to take the onus of hitting, right from the start.
In 2011, we had a solid Gautam Gambhir at no. 3 and a resilient Virat Kohli at no. 4. Though, this time around, there was no one who looked trustworthy at no 4. We needed someone who could have made that position his own, not a floater. Maybe someone like an Ambati Rayudu. It was quite unfair to him.
The no. 5 position was again very crucial. We had the all-mighty all-rounder in Yuvraj Singh in 2011. He did for India what Ben Stokes did for England. Hardik Pandya did not imbibe that same confidence as Yuvi. It is debatable if Pandya can even play a big innings when needed.
No. 6 needed the vintage Dhoni of 2011, not a battered Dhoni of 2019. It is the right time, he should make way for the youngsters, and let them nurture for 2023.
Then, we had Suresh Raina as a solid batsman who could have bowled as well. Very unlike the rusty Dinesh Karthik. I was not pleased with DK’s and Shankar’s selection in the team.
The only comparable duo we had was of Chahal and Kuldeep, who are neck to neck with the duo of Harbhajan and Ashwin. But then they had a long experience at their back, whereas Kulcha is new.
One another comparable or even better member was Jasprit Bumrah in place of Zaheer Khan. Both of them gave us the confidence in our bowling. The support of Ashish Nehra and Sreesanth was equivalent to that of Bhuvi and Shami.
Plus, we immensely lacked left handers in our squad. No batsman after Dhawan gone. No pace bowlers. It might just sound a fad, but a mix of left and right forces the opposition to change their approach.
So, overall, Sachin, Sehwag, Gambhir, Kohli, Yuvraj, Raina, Dhoni, Zaheer, Nehra, Ashwin / Bhajji / Sreesanth was a way better, balanced, frozen and a reliable team than Rohit, Rahul, Kohli, Floater, iyer, Pandya, jadeja, Bumrah, Bhuvi, Chahal, Kuldeep / Shami.
But in 2023 world cup we have a more chances to win this world cup because we have destructive batting opener like Rohit Sharma and shubman gill, we also have strong middle order batsman like Virat Kohli,Shreyas Iyer,KL Rahul and we also have best all-rounder like ravindra jadeja/axar Patel, hardik pandya and we have world class bowler like jasprit bumrah, bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami and we also have good spinners like kuldeep yadav and yuzvendra chahal.This Indian team can definitely win the world cup.
Authored by : Siddharth Mishra
(Author is Journalism student, from FIMT College, GGSIP University New Delhi.)