India will take on five-time champions Australia in Chennai in their first match of the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup on October 8 as the schedule of the upcoming mega event was revealed on Tuesday, June 27, in a special event in Mumbai. Defending Champion England will face New Zealand, who were the other finalists in 2019 and rekindle their rivalry and also kickstart the tournament in India as the opener is set to be played in Ahmedabad on October 5.
But the match against Pakistan, which is arguably the biggest match of the tournament, will be played on Sunday, October 15 in Ahmedabad.
It was earlier reported that the draft schedule had the same itinerary and was sent to all the member states.
Meanwhile, the knockouts will take place on October 15 and 16 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai and the Eden Gardens in Kolkata respectively. This time around, both semifinals will have a reserve day as well. The tournament will culminate on October 19, once again at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
The ICC have narrowed down 10 venues to host matches this time around – Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Dharamsala, Delhi, Chennai, Lucknow, Pune, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Kolkata. In addition to these cities, Guwahati, Thiruvananthapuram and Hyderabad will host warm-up matches from September 29 to October 3.
FORMAT OF THE TOURNAMENT
Much like the last edition in 2019, 10 teams will participate in the tournament. Seven have already qualified by virtue of the Cricket World Cup Super League, while India were already in the tournament as hosts. The remaining two teams will emerge from the ODI World Cup Qualifier tournament in Zimbabwe. The two finalists will make it to the mega event in October where each team will play the other nine in a round-robin format. The top four will qualify for the knockout stage and the semifinals.
All three knock-out fixtures will be day-night affairs, with the matches beginning at 14:00 local time. The tournament, spanning across 46 days and 48 matches. There are six league matches during the day, which will start at 10:30 am IST while the other matches will be day-night games starting at 2:00 pm IST.
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