Rohit Sharma-led India is all set to play their first game of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 against the five-time ICC World Cup champions, Australia, on Sunday at the Chepauk Stadium in Chennai.
India has all the bases covered in all their departments coming into the mega tournament but Shubman Gill could unfortunately miss the opening game as he has tested positive for Dengue according to several reports. Ishan Kishan will most likely open the innings with Rohit. Nevertheless, the Indian team has all the ingredients that could trouble the opposition.
Australia last won the ICC Men’s World Cup in 2015 and always comes hard into multi-nation tournaments posing a serious challenge to the opposition.
However, Australia is dealing with the injury of opener Travis Head, and it is confirmed that he will miss the initial phase of the tournament. The five-time champions had taken a gamble by including Head in the World Cup squad, hoping that he would recover in the later stages of the tournament.
What have they done so far?
India has been playing consistently high-quality cricket for the past month. They won the Asia Cup 2023 by defeating Sri Lanka in the finals by 10 wickets. Moreover, India’s win of 228 runs over Pakistan in the Asia Cup 2023 Super Four Stage gives fans the belief that the Men in Blue are well-prepared for the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup.
Rohit Sharma Led India to Win Back-to-Back ODI Asia Cup Titles
Before the start of the quadrennial tournament, India played against Australia in a three-match home ODI series.
The series provided many positives for India, such as Suryakumar Yadav scoring two consecutive fifties. Moreover, Shreyas Iyer made a comeback after injury and scored a century, giving India good confidence.
On the other hand, Australia will enter the World Cup with some nervousness, having won only 3 ODIs out of their last 8. Australia travelled to South Africa for a 5-match ODI series, where they started well by going 2-0 up but faced three consecutive ODI losses, losing the series 3-2.
After the series defeat against the Proteas, Australia came to India and suffered two consecutive ODI defeats, making it a total of 5 consecutive ODI losses for Australia. However, Australia did manage to win the last ODI match of the series against India with Glenn Maxwell and Mitchell Starc returning to the fold.
Head to Head Record
India and Australia have met each other in 149 ODI matches, in which India emerged victorious on 56 occasions, while Australia has won 83 matches, and 10 matches were affected by rain or bad weather, resulting in a draw.
Speaking of the ICC ODI World Cup record between these two giant sides, both teams have clashed in 12 World Cup matches since the 1983 World Cup edition. India has won only 4 times, while Australia has won eight times.
Key Players
Virat Kohli (India): Former Indian captain Virat Kohli, is all set to play his fourth ICC 50-over World Cup for India. Kohli has scored 2228 runs in 45 innings against Australia, which includes 8 centuries and 12 fifty-plus scores.
Virat Kohli has Scored 3 ODI centuries in 2023
Moreover, looking at Kohli’s record in ICC World Cups, the 34-year-old batter has played 26 World Cup matches in which the run machine scored 1030 runs with an average of 46.81. Kohli also smashed a record-breaking 5 consecutive half-centuries in the 2019 World Cup.
In a match against Australia that took place at the same venue in Chennai in March 2023, Kohli scored a fifty-plus score, making 54 runs off 72 balls. Looking at these stats, he’s definitely going to challenge the Aussie bowlers.
Adam Zampa (Australia): The pitch at Chepauk usually favors spinners a lot, and Indian batters were seen struggling against quality spin bowling. Adam Zampa, a right-arm leg-spinner, displayed a fine bowling performance in 2023, picking up 15 wickets in 9 matches, the most by any Australian bowler in this calendar year.
Moreover, in the ODI played in Chennai in March, Zampa was the Player of the Match after delivering a match-winning spell of 10-0-45-4. His leg-spin bowling troubled Indian batters a lot, and he’s going to be a bankable player for Australia.
Predicted XIs
India: Rohit Sharma ©, Ishan Kishan, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj
Australia: David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell, Alex Carey (wk), Marcus Stoinis, Pat Cummins ©, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazelwood
Prediction
Looking at the current form, India has an edge over the Aussies and can start their World Cup campaign with a win. A lot will depend on India’s top order as they have to be aware of Starc, who recently got a hat trick in a warm-up match.
It can be tough for Australian batters to perform in the spinning and humid conditions of Chepauk but the Kangaroos would be looking ahead to start the mega-tournament with a win.