India's First Match In ODI World Cup To Be Vs Australia; To Play Pakistan Likely On THIS Date, Says Report

BCCI are yet to release the full schedule of ICC ODI World Cup 2023 which will be held in October-November in India. As per a report, the tournament will kickoff on October 5 with game between England and New Zealand.

Source: Twitter

The Rohit Sharma-led Indian cricket team will play their first match against Australia, says a report. The game is likely to be played at the MA Chidambaran stadium in Chennai. The first game of the hugely-awaited tournament is reportedly to played between England and New Zealand on October 5 at Narendra Modi stadium in Ahmedabad, said the same report in Cricbuzz. The full schedule of the World Cup is expected to be out at end of May or early part of June.

Whe will be India vs Pakistan?

The marquee clash of the ODI World Cup 2023 between India and Pakistan is likely to be played on October 15, which is a Sunday. Another report had mentioned that the venue for this India vs Pakistan clash would be Ahmedabad. The final of the tournament will be played at Ahmedabad too. However, no official confirmation has been received yet from BCCI.

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When will the full schedule of 2023 World Cup be out?

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is waiting for the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL 2023) to get over. IPL 2023's final will be held on May 28 at Narendra Modi stadium. It is possible that the full schedule is out as soon as IPL gets over.

Pakistan to play matches on THESE venues

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) have agreed to play all their matches in India, said the report, while adding that the Babar Azam and Co will play their matches in Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Chennai and Bengaluru. The other venues which will get to host games apart from the above mentioned ones are Kolkata, Delhi, Indore, Dharamsala, Guwahati, Rajkot, Raipur and Mumbai.

One Semi-final at Wankhede

India are likely to play a game almost across all the venues as each team in the competition will get nine matches and all of them will be held in different cities. There will be one semi-final played at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai, which hosted the final of the 2011 ODI World Cup which India won. 

ODI World Cup format

The 2023 ODI World Cup will be a ten-team tournament. There will be a total of 48 matches taking place across the two months of October and November. The eight teams who have qualified directly to the World Cup are: India, England, Australia, New Zealand, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh and South Africa. The Proteas men are the last team to join the roster after Ireland and Bangladesh ODI got washed out. Had Ireland won 3 out of 3 matches in the series against Tigers, they would have earned the automatic qualification.