Today, in the first match of the ICC One-Day International World Cup 2023, England and New Zealand will square up against one another on cricket’s greatest platform, exactly four years after providing the most spectacular final in the annals of World Cup history.
The 46-day cricketing extravaganza will get off with the match that will be played at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. There will be a total of 48 matches played at 10 different locations all across India, and the teams competing for the title of greatest ODI team in the world will do so during the course of the tournament.
After the tournament was jointly hosted by India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka in 2011, the 50-over World Cup will return to the sub-continent with the match.
At the beginning of that particular iteration of the competition, the Bangabandhu National Stadium in Dhaka played host to a dazzling opening ceremony that was steeped in the culture of the area.
Despite this, there was not a traditional opening ceremony held for this particular iteration of the World Cup. In its place, an event called Captain’s Day took place in Ahmedabad on Wednesday, and it was attended by the captains of all of the teams that took part in the competition.
Alongside Ravi Shastri, a former coach for India, Eoin Morgan served as a co-host for the event. Morgan was the captain of the England team that won the tournament in 2019, and he was the one who hoisted the trophy as the winner.
Joss Buttler, the current captain of the English one-day international team and Morgan’s deputy in 2019, has given praise to his previous skipper for imparting the fearlessness that the English ODI side presently exhibits. Buttler also said that England would continue to play the same style in India as they have in the past. Morgan was the captain of England in 2019.
Since 2015, the beginning of that “kind of revolution” that you said, and I believe you stated straight through the game, the majority of the team has been working together for a considerable amount of time. Now, in England, new players coming through play in a specific way, and they are motivated to carry on the style. I believe we all recognise that this provides us the greatest opportunity of being successful, so they are determined to continue playing in this manner.
“There will be times when we get it wrong, but we’ve made peace with that, and it’s something we want to continue to strive to do, to keep pushing the boundaries,” she said. “We want to continue to push the boundaries.” Other teams will challenge you and take it to the next level, so we always want to strive and be ahead of the curve as well, said Butler.
On the other side, New Zealand enters this competition having finished second in the World Cup for two consecutive years.
Kane Williamson, the captain of the New Zealand cricket team, has said that his squad is looking forward to the new challenge that lies ahead in India. Williamson, however, will not be participating in the initial match since his knee is not yet fully recovered.
“When it comes to us, it all boils down to the kind of cricket that we want to keep committing to because we believe that this will offer us the greatest opportunity to deliver our best performance. We have competed in a number of different competitions, each of which has presented its own unique set of hurdles for us to overcome. “We are already excited for the challenges that lie ahead for this one,” said Williamson. “[…] we are looking forward to them.”
Former champions Pakistan will open their campaign on Friday against the Netherlands in Dharamshala, while Bangladesh will play their first match of the tournament on Saturday against Afghanistan in the same city.