The World Cup 2023 will get underway this week, on October 5 with a repeat of the last edition’s final: England vs New Zealand. The match will take place at the iconic Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
The final of the tournament, slated for November 19, is also set to be hosted by Ahmedabad.
All experts involved in the tournament as broadcasters have laid down their semi-finalists and finalists. Almost everyone on the Star Sports’ commentary panel has predicted that India, England, and Australia to reach the semi-finals, while the fourth slot could be taken up by Pakistan, South Africa, or New Zealand.
England are the defending champions, having won their maiden ODI WC title four years ago at Lord’s. India will head into the World Cup 2023 as the number 1 ODI ranked men’s team in the world and are the firm favorite for many.
However, for former Australia opener and skipper Aaron Finch, neither India nor England will make it into the final of the WC 2023!
Finch ditches India, England to pick Australia, South Africa as World Cup 2023 finalists
Aaron Finch picked five-time champions and his nation Australia as one of the two finalists this time. For the second finalists, Finch made an unexpected pick in Temba Bavuma’s South Africa team.
South Africa will be without Anrich Nortje and Sisanda Magala for this tournament as both fast bowlers are dealing with injuries, but they have their stocks filled with Rabada, Jansen, Coetzee, and Ngidi. It is South Africa’s batting department that is in superb touch this year with all the batters plundering big runs in white-ball formats this year.
Finch believes that Pat Cummins’ Australia team has the potential to win their 6th ODI World Cup trophy this year in the World Cup 2023.
Australia, too, have an injury concern in Travis Head, who is expected to be fit for the second half of the tournament, and they have picked him in the squad.
Australia’s major strength this year is the depth in their batting department with the likes of Starc and Cummins coming in at numbers 8 and 9. Even though they lost the ODI series against South Africa and India last month, Australia are well-known to turn it up whenever an ICC tournament comes around.
