The captains: One of those leaders could have their palms on the coveted trophy come November 19.
| Photo Credit: ICC
In Ahmedabad, the place the Sabarmati Ashram honours the reminiscence of Mahatma Gandhi, the prime architect of India’s freedom motion towards the British Empire, cricket will as soon as once more showcase its throbbing Indian coronary heart. A quintessential English sport is now distinctly desi whereas the BCCI wields unbridled clout inside cricket’s governing physique, the ICC, and Indian stars are feted as international icons throughout the restricted cricketing universe.
Booster shot
When Jos Buttler and Tom Latham (stepping in for the injured Kane Williamson), who might be helming defending champion England and 2019 version runner-up New Zealand respectively, step out for the toss within the World Cup opener at Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium on Thursday, ODIs hopefully will get a booster shot.
Hovering between the romance of Tests and the commerce of T20s, the willow sport tends to miss ODIs, which was the unique maverick baby drawing monumental consideration.
Muted build-up
The build-up throughout India for cricket’s showpiece occasion stays muted and it hints on the sport’s saturation ranges in addition to the apparent coincidence of the Asian Games occurring at the moment in China.
Being the only host of the World Cup for the primary time, India would do properly to attract some classes from the previous when it did organise the championship in 1987, 1996 and 2011, however with sub-continental allies in tow.
Cut to the current, groups will zigzag from Ahmedabad to Kolkata, from Chennai to Dharamshala, and different venues earlier than discovering closure on Nov. 19.
Ben Stokes, Williamson, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, R. Ashwin, David Warner, Steve Smith and Joe Root will maybe have their final World Cup dance. It is just not as if these illustrious males are finished with cricket however one other tilt at World Cup glory 4 years down the road seems distant.
This premier match isn’t at all times about winners and losers, it’s also about personalities defying odds or, for that matter, even nations discovering an inside metal like for example Afghanistan. With their backyards in a shambles and particular person liberties being shredded, the boys from past the Durrand Line are out right here taking part in cricket.
They actually embody the rugged chutzpah, grace and kindness underneath the gravest threats that permeated Khaled Hosseini’s nice Afghan novel The Kite Runner, which by the way simply turned 20.
Australia, England and South Africa are all a part of the top-mix that would check India, a favorite to carry the Cup.
The incontrovertible fact that India hasn’t gained any ICC silverware since 2013 isn’t misplaced on anybody and there may be the resultant stress on Rohit’s males. Mercurial Pakistan and shrewd New Zealand can spring upsets too and, in long-drawn tournaments, ebbs and flows are however pure.
Even India, when it gained in 2011, needed to take care of a league-game loss towards South Africa.
Among the remainder, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and the Netherlands additionally get an opportunity to ruffle their fancied rivals and, for the nostalgically inclined, there’s a heartbreak to nurse because the West Indies didn’t qualify. Sport may be merciless too!
Content Source: www.thehindu.com