India batter Virat Kohli was excited as the ICC unveiled the much-awaited schedule for the World Cup 2023 tournament which will be played in India from October 5 onwards. India will begin their tournament on October 8 with their first match against Australia at Chennai.
This is the first time India will be hosting a 50-over World Cup single-handedly. Previously in 1987, 1996, and 2011, they were co-hosts with other sub-continent nations like Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh.
Kohli shared his first thoughts on the ICC ODI World Cup 2023 schedule, which will be important for the hosts as the Men in Blue last won an ICC trophy in 2013 in England.
Kohli, a World Cup winner in 2011, also picked the venue he is most excited to play during the World Cup at home. India's No.3 said the Wankhede will evoke the sentiment within him like another venue in this World Cup.
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“Amazing, I’ve played one already but I was 23 at the time, I didn’t probably have an idea of the expectations on the senior players but now being a senior myself, I can understand what they went through and how special it is to play a home World Cup. How excited people are going to be, so it’s an experience that everyone wants to have in their career and I’m getting to do it twice to I’m really happy,”
“Personally I’m looking forward to playing in Mumbai, fond memories of the finals in 2011 obviously, and it’d be great to experience that atmosphere again. I think cricket blends perfectly into the fabric of our culture that is precisely why you see so much passion when it comes to Indian cricket because people live the game at home,” Kohli told ICC.
“For us at the end of the day we’re going out to our job but it’s a lot more than that, when we grow up and start playing the game it’s purely down to the fact that there are so many people who love the game, look at the game. That amount energy invested into one thing obviously grows the importance of that particular thing tenfolds. Even we as cricketers value it so much because there’s so much competition we go throw from young age groups to make our way to the top so we’re absolutely committed to doing everything for the game,” Kohli added.
India won the 2011 World Cup defeating Sri Lanka in the final which was played at the Wankhede Stadium on April 2. Kohli had scored 35, adding 83 for the third wicket with Gautam Gambhir after India had lost the big wickets of Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag in their 275-run chase.
Kohli will get to feel the same atmosphere again in the 2023 edition of the World Cup when India faces Qualifier 2 at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on November 2. The iconic stadium will host the semi-final on November 15.
India plays their group matches in nine different venues - Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Pune, Dharamsala, Lucknow, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Bengaluru.
