Potential India vs Pakistan World Cup Semi-final Not To Be Held In Mumbai, But This Venue

The ICC ODI World Cup 2023 schedule was finally announced on Tuesday, with the tournament set to begin on October 05 in Ahmedabad while the final will be held at the Narendra Modi Stadium too, on November 19. The semi-finals of the tournament have been scheduled to be held in Mumbai and Kolkata. India will play their semi-final in Mumbai, if they qualify for the knockouts, but the venue will change in a scenario where they come up against arch-rivals Pakistan.

The semi-final structure has been defined in a way that the team that finishes the league stage at the top will take on the team that finishes fourth in Mumbai. The second and third-placed teams will face each other in Kolkata. But, in case where the teams that finish first and fourth are India and Pakistan, the semi-final 1 will be held in Kolkata while the semi-final 2 will be in Mumbai.

here will be a total of 10 venues - Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Dharamsala, Delhi, Chennai, Lucknow, Pune, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Kolkata -- hosting the matches in the tournament proper.

Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram in addition to Hyderabad will host the warm-up games from September 29 to October 3.

Twelve hosting associations were called in Mumbai on Monday to discuss the details and finalise the venues before Tuesday's official announcement.

The Wankhede hosted the final of the 2011 World Cup, in which a Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led India beat Sri Lanka to end a 28-year-old title drought, while the Eden Gardens played host to the summit showdown between Australia and England in the 1987 edition, in which the former prevailed.

Pakistan had earlier asked for their match against India to be shifted to either Chennai, Bengaluru or Kolkata, but the ICC and BCCI rejected their request.

There will be 10 teams at this year's World Cup. As hosts, India have qualified directly, as have Afghanistan, Australia, England, Bangladesh, New Zealand, Pakistan, and South Africa through the 2020-2023 ICC Cricket World Cup Super League.

Two other teams will make it to the World Cup through the World Cup Qualifiers, which is being currently played in Zimbabwe.

Apart from former champions Sri Lanka and the West Indies, the Qualifiers also feature Ireland, Nepal, the Netherlands, Oman, Scotland, the UAE, the USA, and hosts Zimbabwe.

At the World Cup in India, the 10 teams will play each other once in a round-robin league featuring 45 matches.

These will be followed by the semifinals and the final.

With PTI inputs

Topics mentioned in this article

India Cricket Team Pakistan Cricket Team World Cup 2023 Wankhede Eden Gardens Cricket