The 2023 edition of the ODI World Cup will take place in India later this year. The Indian team, which last won the World Cup in 2011, when it was co-hosted by India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, would like to end the 12-year-long wait and bag the title in front of home fans and familiar conditions. India have started their preparations for the ODI World Cup on a positive note as they whitewashed 1996 World Cup winners Sri Lanka in a three-match series last week and also won the opening match of the three-match series against New Zealand, which is currently underway in India.
In the last three editions of the ODI World Cup, the hosts have managed to win the title, and the trend started with India only in 2011, when under MS Dhoni’s leadership, the Men in Blue managed to end the 28-year wait in front of a jam-packed crowd at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. This year, when the tournament will once again take place in India, the Men in Blue will hope to repeat their heroics.
R Ashwin, a member of the Dhoni-led team that won the World Cup in 2011, has emphasised India’s dominance in home conditions in recent years and named Rohit Sharma‘s team the firm favourites to win the title. He sees no rocket science in calling India favorites, but at the same time, he has said that “India is going to be a bit of short-changed”.
In a video posted on his YouTube channel, India’s second-highest wicket-taker in Test matches stated that India has won series against all countries that have travelled here for bilateral assignments since the conclusion of the ODI World Cup in 2019. But he said that unlike Australia and England, India played all 18 of its ODIs at home in 14 different venues.
“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.Explaining his logic behind why playing in more venues is not going to really help India, Ashwin said that “India are going to be a bit of short-changed” because the wickets are different at each venue.
“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.
