One of the iconic batsmen in cricket history Viv Richards has endorsed India ahead of the upcoming ODI World Cup. The former West Indies batter has a place in his heart as he made his Test debut on Indian soil. He went on to describe the special affection he has for India and how the massive home support will help them in the mega tournament.
“I feel like India, I have a deep attachment to India, the special country in itself. I made my debut in India and I have a lot of sentimental reasons for that part of the world. So I want to support India to make it say well, they have massive support, you can never forget that when you have massive support it can be seriously encouraging,” Richards told the ICC.
India will look to lift the World Cup trophy again, just like they did at the 2011 World Cup on home soil, when the mega-tournament begins on Thursday, October 5, when 2019 finalists England and New Zealand clash at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad with the event culminating in the final at the same place on Sunday 19 November. India start their campaign with a match against Australia in Chennai on October 8.
Ten teams will participate in this biggest ever Cricket World Cup, which will be played across 10 venues from October 5 to November 19, with the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad hosting the tournament opener and the final. The event will feature 48 matches to be played over 46 days.
Other than Ahmedabad and Chennai are Bengaluru, Delhi, Dharamsala, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai and Pune. While Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram join Hyderabad in hosting the practice matches.
Eight teams have qualified for the 46-day event through the Cricket World Cup Super League, while the final two spots were decided by the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier taking place in Zimbabwe. Sri Lanka and the Netherlands grabbed the last two spots in the tournament.
The top four teams qualify for the semi-finals to be played in Mumbai on 15 November and in Kolkata on 16 November. The final will take place on November 19 in Ahmedabad. The semi-finals and final will have spare days.
Indian squad for World Cup: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya (Vice Captain), Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep YadavMohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj.
Topics mentioned in this article