ODI World Cup 2023 is going to be hosted by India. It is expected that Team India would like to end the drought of 11 years of winning their World Cup this time.
As the host team, it has a golden opportunity to dominate in its conditions, but before that, Team India’s spin bowler Ravichandran Ashwin has expressed a concern. Actually Ravichandran Ashwin is worried about the timing of the match and wants a change in it.
Ashwin advised to change match timing –
Ravichandran Ashwin said that during the World Cup, the day-night match can be started a few hours before the time. At present, ODI matches in India start at 1.30 pm and the toss takes place at 1 pm.
Talking on his YouTube channel, Ashwin said, “My advice or rather my opinion is that for the World Cup, we should think about the field and time. Why not start the match at 11.30 during the World Cup?”Â
Ashwin also cited the example of the Guwahati ODI between India and Sri Lanka for this. He said that while chasing 374 runs in that match, Team India had lost 8 wickets for 206 runs at one stage, but then made a spectacular comeback. He said, “India batted well on a slow pitch in Guwahati but dew reduced the margin of win and loss. Dew only reduced the quality gap between the two teams.”Â
He said that the World Cup match should start at 11.30 and as far as the fans are concerned, they will watch the match even then. Let us tell you that keeping in view the TV viewers, the timing of the match is kept at 1.30, but Ashwin believes that it will not make any difference to the fans.
“The ICC is aware of the dew factor. So it is better to start the match earlier so that dew does not affect the match in any way,” he said.
Now how useful this advice of Ashwin is and what the ICC thinks about it, time will tell, but it is certain that if this happens, it will be good for both the teams.