With less than two months remaining before the ICC ODI World Cup 2023 gets underway in India, the teams across the world have started fine-tuning their plans and squads for the showpiece event. The tournament gets underway on October 5 when defending champions England taken on New Zealand in Ahmedabad.
The marquee event is being held in India for the first time since 2011 and the Rohit Sharma-led home team is being projected as the favourites to win the title.
12 years back, India became the first team in history to win the ODI World Cup at home when MS Dhoni & Co defeated Sri Lanka in the final at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
However, since then, India haven’t been able to win the trophy with quarterfinal appearance in 2015 followed by a painful semifinal exit in 2019.
As the tournament approaches, the Indian team is gearing up for the major tournament with captain Rohit Sharma hoping to ride on the home support to end his team’s decade-long wait for an ICC title.
Mohammad Kaif, who was part of Indian squad that lost to Australia in the final of the 2003 ODI World Cup, has made a request to fans via his Twitter account to not argue over individual players and not play down the team’s chances.
Small request for cricket fans: Don’t write off Indian team. Show unity, don’t be divided by your individual choice of players. Rohit and Dravid have played big tournaments without stars like Bumrah. World Cup is coming home, the boys need your support.— Mohammad Kaif (@MohammadKaif) August 6, 2023
Kaif’s post is in reference to the war on social media that erupts nearly on a daily basis between fans giving arguments to back their favourite players.
“Small request for cricket fans: Don’t write off Indian team. Show unity, don’t be divided by your individual choice of players,” Kaif said in a Tweet.
“Rohit and Dravid have played big tournaments without stars like Bumrah. World Cup is coming home, the boys need your support,” he added.
The Indian team will be praying for the quick recovery of their ODI stars including Jasprit Bumran, KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer.
Bumrah will make his international return later this month but there’s no clarity over when the duo of Rahul and Iyer will get fully fit.
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