Many cricket fans say that New Zealand were deserving winners of the ODI World Cup 2019 which took place in UK, however, England won the 2019 WC final on boundary counts after both New Zealand and England had scored same amount of runs.
It will be a nervy moment for New Zealand to start their world cup journey against England, a team that gave them disparaged and disappointed evening at Lord’s cricket ground four years ago.
New Zealand will definitely see this event as opportunity to boost their confidence, their team has gone weaker since last world cup. It is unlikely that Kane Williamson will play because he sustained a major injury during his IPL stint, and one of their most reliable batter Ross Taylor retired from cricket a year ago.
ICC World Cup 2023 updates : 🏏
England vs New Zealand first match
India’s first match vs Australia in Chepauk
India vs Pakistan on October 15th
Mumbai to host one Semi final
Pakistan to play their games in Ahmedabad, Hyderbad, Chennai, Bengaluru
Similar is case of England’s team, their world cup winning captain Eoin Morgan has retired from international cricket. Also, during last last home season, Ben Stokes decided to not play ODI cricket due to extra burden of busy gaming schedule.
It is still not confirmed who will lead New Zealand in the upcoming World Cup, two big names, Tim Southee and Tom Latham, are in consideration to lead in absence of Kane Williamson who had a terrific 2019 ODI World Cup.
India (host nation), New Zealand, Pakistan, Australia, South Africa, Bangladesh, England and Afghanistan have directly qualified for the Men’s ODI World Cup 2023. 10 teams are yet to play qualifiers in Zimbabwe and two of them will book their seat in the ODI World Cup.
Zimbabwe, Netherlands, Sri Lanka, West Indies, Ireland, United States, United Arab Emirates, Scotland and Oman will go through qualifier stages to play in the World Cup. It is speculated that Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka have higher chances to qualify for the CWC.
The Venues for World Cup 2023 [Cricbuzz]:
Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Delhi, Indore, Dharamsala, Guwahati, Rajkot, Raipur and Mumbai.
We haven’t seen any ODI game being played at Narendra Modi Stadium, so the tournament opener of October 5 will be the first one day international to be played at this venue.
A number of New Zealand and England players are attached the IPL teams, they have already played a number of matches, enough to get an idea of how the pitch behaves, on these venues. That input will be of great importance when they come back in their national colors to fight for the ultimate glory.