ICC has released the schedule of the ODI World Cup 2023. The tournament will be played in India from October 5 to November 19. The first match will be between England and New Zealand. These two teams were face to face in the final of the 2019 World Cup. Both these teams will play the first match of the tournament on October 5 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. At the same time, India's first match will be with Australia on October 8 at Chennai ground. There has been no major change in the draft schedule and India will play against Pakistan on October 15 at the Ahmedabad ground.
A total of 10 teams will participate in this World Cup. Eight teams have already qualified for the tournament and the remaining two places are being played in Zimbabwe with a qualifier round, with six teams making it to the Super Sixes. Two of these teams will participate in the main round of the World Cup to be held in India. At present, the West Indies team, which won the first two World Cups, is on the verge of being out of this World Cup. Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe have the highest chances of playing in the main round. The remaining two teams to join the world will also be decided on July 9.
In this World Cup, all the teams will play in a round-robin format along with the other nine teams. Out of these, the top four teams in the points table will qualify for the semi-finals and the winning teams will compete in the finals.
The last match of the group stage will be played on 12 November. After this, the semi-final matches will be held in Mumbai on 15 November and Kolkata on 16 November. The final match will be held in Ahmedabad on 19 November. A reserve day has been kept for both semi-final matches. At the same time, November 20 will remain a reserve day for the final match. All the knockout matches will be day-night matches and will start at 2:00 pm local time.
Matches will be held at a total of 10 grounds: Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Dharamshala, Delhi, Chennai, Lucknow, Pune, Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Kolkata.
Apart from Hyderabad, Guwahati, and Thiruvananthapuram will host practice matches from September 29 to October 3.
(pc amarujala)
