Published: Jun 28, 2023, 09:56 AM (IST)
Edited: Jun 28, 2023, 10:02 AM (IST)
New Delhi: ODI World Cup 2023 schedule was announced by the ICC and BCCI at an event in Mumbai on Tuesday. The tournament will commence on October 5, with defending champions England taking on 2019 runners-up New Zealand at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Hosts, India will open their campaign against Australia on October 8 before taking on Afghanistan on October 11. The highly-anticipated clash with Pakistan will be played at the Narendra Modi Stadium on October 15.
Pakistan, who will be looking to win their first ODI World Cup post the 1992 win, will play their first two games against the qualifier teams in Hyderabad on October 6 and October 12 before taking on India.
Ahead of the main draw, the teams will also play two warm-up matches to fine-tune their combination. The warm-up matches will be played in Hyderabad, Trivandrum and Guwahati.
Pakistan have their warm-up games scheduled against New Zealand and Australia on September 29th and October 3 respectively. Notably, Pakistan had requested the International Cricket Council to not schedule their warm-up matches against Afghanistan and other Asian teams.
The board had cited reasons that the team will play the sub-continent teams in the preceding Asia Cup and facing them again will not help them in any way. The ICC accepted PCB’s demand and scheduled the matches against New Zealand and Australia.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Cricket Board also requested the ICC to change venues for the games against Australia and Afghanistan. Pakistan are scheduled to take on Afghanistan in Chennai and Australia in Bangalore, however, the Men in Green wanted a swap in venues for the matches but the BCCI and the ICC paid no heed to the demands.
