India spinner R Ashwin has opined on the upcoming mega clash between the Men in Blue and Pakistan side in the ICC World Cup 2023 which will be played at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on October 15.
The excitement quotient is already at its height ever since the ICC released the schedule for the World Cup 2023 on June 27. The tournament will begin on October 5 in Ahmedabad with last year’s finalists New Zealand taking on defending champions England.
India will begin its campaign against Australia on October 8 in Chennai and the high voltage clash, that everyone will be waiting for against Pakistan will come on October 15 in front of more than 1 lakh cheering fans in Ahmedabad.
While addressing the World Cup 2023 fixtures that were announced Tuesday and predicting what is in store for India's matches against various opponents, Ashwin spoke about the Pakistan match as well.
"The last few games between India and Pakistan in the ICC events have been extraordinary, to say the least. I think we can expect another blockbuster India-Pakistan game.
It's going to be a very equally-balanced game because Pakistan also has a quality seam attack. For India, we are expecting Bumrah, maybe even Prasidh… all these guys to be fit. I don't know what the combination is going to look like but all in all, a great contest on hand,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.
Even though there are still three and a half months until the World Cup, the tickets for the mother of all matches are already showing signs of being sold out, with hotels in Ahmedabad already being reserved in advance and tickets anticipated to move quickly once the window opens.
Ashwin shared the same enthusiasm and said: "The game I want to talk about is the one against Pakistan at Ahmedabad on October 15. Of course, it's going to be a sell-out. 130000 will be the capacity audience at the Narendra Modi Stadium.
Even in the 2011 World Cup, Ahmedabad had happy memories at Ahmedabad. The same venue was called the Motera Stadium back then where he played our quarter-final against Australia and beat them. We qualified for the semifinal against Pakistan and went on to win that World Cup.”
He spoke about the experience some of the Indian players have at playing at the Narendra Modi stadium, like Shubman Gill and Mohammad Shami, for whom it has been their home ground in the Indian Premier League as their franchise, Gujarat Titans played it’s home matches on the same venue.
“But from the Narendra Modi Stadium, we have some learning lessons from this year's IPL and some ODIs at this venue. From IPL, we know that this is Shubman Gill's home venue and he loves batting there. So he is going to relish the game. During the IPL, the ball swung especially during the second innings of the game. Both Mohammed Shami and Hardik Pandya have enjoyed bowling here.
Even Prasidh enjoyed bowling here during an ODI against West Indies. We defended 240-odd I think and ended up winning that game. So there has been a bit of lift and carry during the night. We are playing against Pakistan so I don't know how to weigh in the toss factor here. In other venues, we can choose to bowl first due to the dew but Ahmedabad is more of a catch-22 situation," he signed off.
(Hindustan Times inputs)
