When India plays host to the One-Day International World Cup 2023 in October and November of this year, batting stalwart Virat Kohli will be hoping to have a big tournament. Ahead of the main event, King Kohli gives an interview in which he discusses how important it will be for India and its fans to host the World Cup.
12 years after India won the ODI World Cup in front of a booming Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, the Men in Blue will be ready to play when this year’s competition takes place in the country from October 5 to November 19. The tournament will take place from October 5 to November 19. India reached the last four of the World Cup in both 2015 and 2019 while Mahendra Singh Dhoni was serving as the team’s captain. In 2011, India became the second team in history to win the World Cup. Will this be the year that India wins their third title?
Virat Kohli, a fixture in India’s batting lineup who was a member of the team that won the World Cup in 2011, is getting ready for his second home World Cup. He recently opened out about the excitement that surrounds the game in India and among Indian cricket fans all over the world.
“Amazing. I have already played one, although I was 23 years old at the time, so I probably have some notion of the demands that are placed on senior players. But now that I’m a senior myself, I can comprehend what they went through, as well as how unique it is to play a World Cup match in one’s own country and how excited people are going to be about it. Therefore, it’s an experience that everybody aspires to have at some point in their professional lives, and I’m going to get the chance to do it again. In an interview with the ICC, Virat Kohli expressed his happiness by saying, “So, I’m really, really happy.”
“Playing in Mumbai is somewhere I’ve always wanted to do, and I can’t wait to do it. “I have a lot of good memories from the finals in 2011, and it would be amazing to be able to experience that atmosphere once more,” Kohli said.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) made the announcement on Tuesday that the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, which is the largest cricket stadium in the world, will play host to the most anticipated World Cup group match between India and Pakistan on October 15. Additionally, the colossal venue will also host the tournament’s championship event on November 19.
The tournament will begin on October 5 with a match between the defending champions England and the runners-up New Zealand at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. The Narendra Modi Stadium is the largest in the world with a seating capacity of 1,32,000 spectators, which is 32,000 more than the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).
Eden Gardens in Kolkata and Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai are both well-known venues with storied histories, and according to the programme, the two semifinal matches of the major event will be played at those venues on November 15 and 16, respectively. Both of these stadiums are located in the city of Mumbai.
Eden Gardens hosted the championship match between Australia and England in the 1987 World Cup, which Australia won. The Wankhede Stadium was the location of the 2011 World Cup final, which India won under the leadership of Mahendra Singh Dhoni. This victory ended India’s title drought of 28 years.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has announced that India will begin their campaign with an entertaining match against Australia on October 8 in Chennai. This match will mark the beginning of the 100-day countdown before the beginning of the One-Day International championship. Guwahati, which is one of the 12 venues picked to host the matches, including the warm-up games, will be one of the places that welcomes the World Cup for the first time to the northeastern part of India.
The competition’s matches were scheduled to take place in ten cities spread across India: Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Dharamsala, Delhi, Chennai, Lucknow, Pune, Bengaluru, and Mumbai. Kolkata was the tenth city on the list.
Virat Kohli, when discussing the significance of cricket to the people of India, expressed his gratitude for the opportunity to represent his country and went into detail about the supporters’ unbridled enthusiasm for the game.
“Cricket fits in seamlessly with the rest of our traditions and customs. When it comes to cricket in India, you will see a lot of emotion and enthusiasm for a number of very good reasons. The reason for this is that folks back home live the game. At the end of the day, we are going there to do our jobs, but once you start maturing and getting involved in the game, it becomes clear that there is much more to it than that. The fact that there are so many people at home who enjoy playing the game is the sole reason for this success. Clearly, the significance of whatever it is that you are devoting so much of your time and effort to improving will increase as a direct result of your efforts. Even for us as cricket players, there is so much competition that we have to go through, starting from younger age groups, in order to make our way up to the top. Because of this, we appreciate it so highly. “Therefore, we have made the unwavering decision to do everything possible for the game up until the point at which we play the game,” Kohli added.