The Indian cricket team will be going into the ODI World Cup 2023 as favourites as the knowledge of the pitches and conditions can turn out to be crucial, spinner Ravichandran Ashwin said on Friday. Ashwin, who won the World Cup in 2011 under the captaincy of MS Dhoni, also pointed out that India have beaten all teams in home conditions and that will be a major boost for Rohit Sharma & Co. However, the one issue that Ashwin believes that can derail the hosts’ campaign can be the fact that the tournament will be played at different venues and adaptability can prove to be a challenge for the cricketers.
“India’s ODI home record ever since the 2019 World Cup finished is extremely impressive. India has won against every team that’s travelled to India in this space, which are the West Indies, Australia, England, South Africa, and Sri Lanka. India’s home record is 14-4 in this space, which is a 78 to 80 percent win record in India. All 18 of these ODIs have happened in different venues every single time (14 venues). If you have to compare the same spree with Australia or England, the venues are pretty stock standard. They play all their Test matches at 4-5 venues, the ODIs at 2-3 venues, and so they know their venues are the back of their hand,” he said in a video published on YouTube.
The home advantage is expected to help India considering the stellar form in all series since the last World Cup in 2019 but Ashwin said that a lot can depend on the rest of the fixtures in 2023.
“Since the 2011 World Cup, all teams have managed to win their home World Cup: India in 2011, Australia in 2015 and England in 2019. This is no rocket science, knowing your conditions is extremely important. However, for India, in this regard is going to be a bit of short-changed because of the number of venues we play these games in. Every single time you play in some of these venues the wickets are going to be different. India does not have a stock standard Test, ODI or T20I season. You don’t know how the FTP is going to pan out but it gets hard from the team or player’s perspective,” he said.
