Men’s ODI Cricket World Cup schedule released, rivals IND vs PAK on Oct 15 at Ahmedabad

New Delhi: Two-time champion and hosts India will face their rivals Pakistan on October 15 in Ahmedabad as the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced the World Cup schedule for Men’s ODI Cricket World Cup 2023 on Tuesday. The campaign will kick-off on October 5 as defending champions England will take on New Zealand at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad in repeat of the final of the 2019 edition. Hosts India will begin their campaign against five-time World Cup winners Australia in Chennai on October 8.

The first semi-final will be held on Wednesday November 15 in Mumbai at the Wankhede Stadium and the second semi-final will be held the following day in Kolkata at the Eden Gardens. Both semi-finals will have a reserve day. The Final will take place at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on November 19 with November 20 slated as the reserve day. Gujarat is now the new capital of India cricket.

A total of 10 teams will participate in the World Cup, the first eight having already qualified through the Cricket World Cup Super League. The final two spots will be determined at the end of the Qualifier tournament in Zimbabwe, which concludes on July 9.

All three knock-out fixtures will be day-night affairs, with the matches beginning at 2pm local time.

There will be a total of 10 venues – Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Dharamsala, Delhi, Chennai, Lucknow, Pune, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Kolkata.

Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram in addition to Hyderabad will host the warm-up matches from September 29 to October 3.

It is important to note that Pakistan has reprtedly asked to play their matches in Chennai, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Hyderabad. So now will Pakistan agree to play in Ahmedabad. However, Pakistan hhad earlier asked for their match against India to be shifted to either Chennai, Bengaluru or Kolkata, but it was rejected by the BCCI and ICC.

IND vs AUS – Oct 8, Chennai

IND vs AFG – Oct 11, Delhi

IND vs PAK – Oct 15, Ahmedabad

IND vs BAN- Oct 19, Pune

IND vs NZ, Oct 22, Dharamsala

IND vs ENG – Oct 29, Lucknow

IND vs Qualifier – Nov 2, Mumbai

IND vs SA – Nov 5, Kolkata

IND vs Qualifier, Nov 11, Bengaluru