After the embarrassing exits in the last two T20 World Cup, and the heartbreaks of the semi-final exits of the last ODI World Cups, India, in 2023, are presented with a great chance to end their ICC trophy drought as India will host the ODI World Cup later this year.
India’s last ODI World Cup triumph came in the home World Cup in 2011, ending the country’s drought for the ODI World Cup trophy of 28 years and fulfilling Sachin Tendulkar’s dreams.
Dreaming for this trophy will also be the likes of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, two of the greatest-ever ODI batters who are all but likely to play in their last ODI World Cup. Kohli won the trophy in 2011 as an up-and-coming youngster while Rohit was not selected.
Now, the two giants of world cricket enter the 2023 World Cup, having achieved colossal record and milestones in the past decade to the last frontier of their glittering ODI careers.
Should India have all their players fit and available for the 2023 World Cup, it will be quite a headache for the selectors to nail down the final few spots in the 15-man squad. While about 9-10 players pick themselves in the squad, and most of them in the XI, the others have also presented a strong case for selection.
Rishabh Pant has been ruled out for the entire year
The top 7 is, at the moment, set in stone. However, the likes of Kishan and Suryakumar will be pushing hard, but currently, Shreyas Iyer and Shubman Gill seemed to have cemented a place for themselves, so has KL Rahul as the keeper at number 5, followed by Pandya and Jadeja.
It would be interesting to see if India include Axar in their XI even when Jadeja is fit, because Axar has proven his terrific bowling – tightly economical plus wicket-taking – which is a plus over Jadeja, however, Jadeja is still a better batsman, especially when required to build an innings after early wickets, than Axar.
With his splendid spree of new ball wickets, Siraj seemed to have pipped over Shami as the new ball bowler when Bumrah is fit. At the same time, since Siraj gets in as the new ball bowler, this means that India can opt for Shardul ahead of Deepak Chahar.
Umran Malik and Prasidh Krishna, two high-pace hit-the-deck middle-overs enforcer, might be kept out by Shami. However, excluding Malik would be a tough pill for the management.
Coming to the spin department, Kuldeep Yadav, along with Axar Patel, seems a lock in the 15-man squad, ahead of Chahal and Sundar.
India’s probable 15-man 2023 World Cup squad:
Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur, Suryakumar Yadav, Umran Malik
Reserves: Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Prasidh Krishna, Ishan Kishan (wk), Deepak Chahar
When will the 2023 World Cup start?
The tentative date for the start of the 2023 World Cup is 10th October, with the final likely to be played on 26 November 2023. Although this could be changed as the ICC has not yet finalized the dates of the start and final of the tournament.
