
The International Cricket Council (ICC), on Tuesday (June 27), released the full schedule of the upcoming ODI World Cup, to be held in India later this year. As soon as the schedule got revealed, former cricketers and experts shared their take on it, predicted the top four, etc. Talking about Team India, the home side will kick off their campaign versus Australia, in Chennai, on October 08 with the tournament opener to be held on October 05, in Ahmedabad, between defending champions England and New Zealand.
At present, India have plenty of their star cricketers recovering from injuries -- such as Jasprit Bumrah, Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer. Nonetheless, India still have a lot of firepower in their line-up with stars including captain Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, etc. The two-time winners will hope to get off to a fine start in the ten-team tournament and go the distance with an aim to win the ODI World Cup after 2011, when MS Dhoni-led India won the championship on home soil.
Rohit, at 36, and Kohli -- who is 34 -- are in the twilight of their respective careers and, thus, the 2023 ODI WC is expected to be their last in the showpiece event or overall. In this regard, it is expected that the rest of the team will gear up to give their all for the superstar duo Rohit and Kohli. Sourav Ganguly, India's former captain and BCCI President, shared his take on Rohit and Kohli's future after the schedule announcement.
"I don't believe too much in last time, first time. I believe in performances. I think they are 34-35, I don't know what's going to happen in the next World Cup. There are world tournaments every year - T20 cricket, 50-over cricket. It's not like as in the past when we started - one every four years and then the Champions Trophy came in. So it's about performances and I am sure Rohit as captain and Virat will be wanting to make it a big one not from a personal point of view but from winning it. I think that's the biggest," Ganguly toldStar Sports.
Rohit and Kohli have been the backbone of Team India's batting order across formats for over a decade. The two will be desperate to lead the charge once again and take India to the title later this year in the ODI WC.
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