The 50-over World Cup will be held in India. It goes without saying that they will begin as a favourite. They will, however, be aware of their terrible record in ICC knockout stages.
However, before the knockout stages, India will face nine more countries. According to the draught schedule, the highly awaited India-Pakistan match will take place on October 15 in Ahmedabad.
The Narendra Modi Stadium is the world's largest cricket stadium. When Rohit Sharma's team takes on Babar Azam and Co., expect the stadium to be packed to the rafters.
Aakash Chopra recently commented on the conflict. On his YouTube channel, the former India cricketer stated that the match will stop heartbeats for a while since over one lakh ardent fans will be generating a lot of noise, cheering on their favourite players.
"India vs Pakistan, World Cup 2023, this will be a 50-over match at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on October 15. The heartbeats will stop for some time. There will be 1.25 lakh people making noise and it is going to be an interesting encounter. This is proper blockbuster stuff."
India will potentially begin their World Cup campaign with a challenging match against the mighty Australians on October 8 in Chennai. With only four victories in 12 World Cup games against Australia, India will need to be at their best to beat the five-time champions.
Aakash Chopra fears that the match could be affected by rain:
"India's first match is on October 8 in Chennai against Australia. So India are starting with an absolute bang of a match. It rains in Chennai in October-November. So I am finding it slightly dicey as the Chennai matches might be rain affected. October is still a little early but it definitely rains in November,"
said the 45-year-old.
Speaking on India's second game versus Afghanistan in Delhi, Chopra predicted that players like Rashid Khan and Noor Ahmad would cause issues, but that the two-time winners would eventually triumph.
"You will play against Afghanistan on October 11 in Delhi. Afghanistan are a team whose bowling will trouble you. They will not get hit that easily, although to be very honest, whether it is Noor Ahmad, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman or Mohammad Nabi, you will find that despite everything, India win this match."
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