Sourav Ganguly : Former India captain Sourav Ganguly has announced his ODI squad for the 2023 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup with a strong batting line-up and focus on youth and experience. The World Cup will start on October 5, 2023.
World Cup 2023: ODI World Cup 2023 will be the biggest sporting event of 2023 and India has a great opportunity to host the mega event. Former India captain Sourav Ganguly named his ODI squad for the upcoming ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023. Ganguly played with a strong batting line-up of Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill and Ishan Kishan among the men in blue. He had the experience of Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer and Suryakumar Yadav in the midfield. KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer were among the 15 players who recently returned from injury but have yet to prove their fitness for the match.
Sourav Ganguly chose Kishan and Rahul as wicket keepers, while Hardik Pandya was chosen as the vice-captain. Ravindra Jadeja and Akshar Patel were all spin options, with Kuldeep Yadav being the team’s only pure spinner.
He did not pick Tilak Varma and Yuzvendra Chahal but said that if any player becomes unfit, they will be his first choice.
“If one of the middle-order batsmen becomes unfit, [it will be] Tilak Varma,” Ganguly told Star Sports, as reported by ANI. “If one of the fast bowlers becomes unfit; then Prasidh Krishna; if one of the spinners becomes unfit, then Yuzvendra Chahal.”
“I always pick Chahal. I always pick hiking, I don’t know what the selectors think, but I would always pick sweepers,” he added.
“You need youth, a good team is a mixture of youth and experience. So you need the brilliance of youth, the fearlessness of youth and campaigns of the season like Rohit, Virat, Rahul, Jadeja and Pandya. You need someone who is just fearless, Ganguly finished.
“This is a very strong team. Bumrah is back, which makes the team even stronger. The bowling is very good – Shami, Bumrah, Siraj. You don’t get a better fast bowling attack. And spin, Jadeja, the wrist-spinner. Ganguly had earlier told Star Sports. The FIFA World Cup kicks off on Thursday 5 October when 2019 finalists England and New Zealand meet at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, culminating in the final at the same venue on Sunday 19 November.
The India-Pakistan clash was originally scheduled to take place in Ahmedabad on Sunday, October 15, but was moved a day earlier and will now take place at the same venue on Saturday, October 14.
Sourav Ganguly picks his World Cup squad :
Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Hardik Pandya (VC), Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami , Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur.
