The thrilling India vs. Pakistan match in the ODI World Cup later this year is scheduled to take place on October 15 in Ahmedabad, which features a stadium with more than 100,000 seats. On October 5, England and New Zealand, the two sides that competed in the dramatic tied final in 2019, will face off. Three days later, in Chennai, India will begin their campaign against Australia. The BCCI’s preliminary schedule for the 2023 ODI World Cup includes some of these major matches.
The ICC received the draft schedule from the BCCI and forwarded it to the participating nations for comments before releasing the final schedule early the next week.
The semi-finals, which are anticipated to be played on November 15 and 16, do not have a venue listed in the draft calendar. The opening game and the final will both take place in Ahmedabad on November 19.
According to information obtained by ESPNcricinfo, India will play its league games at nine different locations in the draft version. The itinerary for India includes:
Ind vs Aus on October 8, Chennai vs Afg on October 11, Delhi vs Pak on October 15, Ahmedabad vs Ban on October 19, Dharamsala vs Eng on October 29, Lucknow vs qualifier on November 2, Mumbai vs SA on November 5, Kolkata vs qualifier on November 11, Bengaluru
During the league phase, Pakistan is slated to play at five different locations. Aside from the India match in Ahmedabad, Pakistan is scheduled to play the two teams moving on from the Qualifier on October 6 and 12 in Hyderabad, as well as Australia on October 20 in Bengaluru, Afghanistan on October 23 and South Africa on October 27 in Chennai, Bangladesh on October 31 in Kolkata, New Zealand on November 5 in Bengaluru for a day match, and England on November 12 in Kolkata, which according to the proposed schedule is the last game of the league phase.
Other notable games are Australia vs. New Zealand on October 29 in Dharamsala, Australia vs. England on November 4 in Ahmedabad, and New Zealand vs. South Africa on November 1 in Pune.
With the World Cup coming in approximately four months, there has been an unprecedented delay before the announcement of the schedule. The schedule for the last two tournaments, in 2015 and 2019, was decided upon more than a year in advance.
The BCCI secretary, Jay Shah, has previously stated that the schedule would be released during the World Test Championship final on May 27. He did not, however, explain why there was a delay. Geoff Allardice, CEO of the ICC, stated that the schedule would be released “anytime soon” on BBC’s Test Match Special on the first day of the WTC final, but he did not provide a specific time frame.
The delay in the schedule has also prevented the ICC from releasing ticket information, despite the fact that international fans have been increasingly anxious to book their flights.
