India, Pakistan match and World Cup final will be held in Ahmedabad, semi-finals in Mumbai and Kolkata

Mumbai: The much-hyped one-day World Cup match between India and Pakistan will be played at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on October 15, while the final will be played on November 19 at the world’s largest stadium. The ICC announced this on Tuesday. The tournament will begin in Ahmedabad on October 5 with a match between the previous winners England and the runners-up New Zealand. Narendra Modi Stadium is the largest stadium in the world by the number of spectators which can seat 132000 spectators which is 32000 more than Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).

The first semi-final of the World Cup 2023 will be played on November 15 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai and the second on the next day at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Both semi-finals will have a reserve day. The final match will be held in Ahmedabad on November 19 while November 20 will be the reserve day. All the three knockout matches will be of day night. Announcing the ODI World Cup 100 days before the schedule, the ICC said that hosts India will open their campaign on October 8 against five-time World Cup winners Australia in Chennai. Guwahati is one of the 12 venues where the tournament matches, including warm-up matches, will be played. For the first time the World Cup will debut in Northeast India. The World Cup matches will be held in Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Dharamshala, Delhi, Chennai, Lucknow, Pune, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Kolkata. Apart from Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram, practice matches will be played in Hyderabad from September 29 to October 3. The 12 host associations were called to Mumbai on Monday where they were briefed in detail ahead of Tuesday’s official announcement.

The final of the 2011 World Cup was played at the Wankhede Stadium where India won the title after 28 years under the captaincy of Mahendra Singh Dhoni. At the same time, the final of the 1987 World Cup was played at Eden Gardens in which Australia defeated England. Pakistan had demanded to have the match against India in Chennai, Bengaluru or Kolkata, which was turned down by the BCCI and the ICC. Ten teams will participate in this World Cup, out of which eight have qualified through the ICC Cricket World Cup Super League and the remaining two will reach through the ongoing qualifier tournament in Zimbabwe. Apart from former champions Sri Lanka, West Indies, Netherlands, Oman, Scotland, UAE, USA and hosts Zimbabwe are participating in the qualifiers. In the World Cup, all the teams will play each other on a round robin basis followed by semi-finals and finals.