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India are set to commence their ODI World Cup 2023 campaign against Australia and all eyes are on their star batters, especially Virat Kohli. The game, set to take place at the Chepauk Stadium in Chennai on Sunday, October 8, promises to be a blockbuster affair, and the same sentiments were echoed by former India skipper Sourav Ganguly.
Speaking to Sports Tak in an exclusive interview, Ganguly highlighted how big an affair the World Cup at home was, citing a couple of names of players who are going to be India's X Factor at the ODI World Cup. He said that the ongoing mega event was the biggest tournament for Virat Kohli, and his stature was no less than that of Sachin Tendulkar in 2011.
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"Every World Cup is different. That team had Tendulkar, this one has Virat Kohli. His record is the same as Tendulkar's in One Day cricket. Rohit is in good form as well. I feel that this team is stronger than the 2011 side. But they had the X Factor of MS Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh. So we have to see if Hardik Pandya, KL Rahul or Shreyas Iyer -- whether they can be the X Factor for India this time around."
"But the real X Factor is Virat Kohli and Shubman Gill. I have a lot of hopes from Gill especially. He knows how to play ODIs now and people can see that. But for Kohli, this will be a very important World Cup. He won the World Cup in 2011 as a young player. Now he is one of the most experienced players on the pitch. He has the responsibility that players like Dhoni, Sachin and Yuvraj had in 2011."
Kohli has been in good form heading into the World Cup. He had a century in the Asia Cup against Pakistan, and was instrumental in taking the team to the trophy.
On the other hand Shubman Gill has been the best ODI batter in 2023 but his reported absence for the first match of the tournament against Australia might hurt the team. Gill is reportedly down with Dengue and is set to miss out on the first match of the tournament. Ishan Kishan is touted to take his place in the Playing XI.
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