After a washed-out warm-up game against defending champions England in Guwahati on Saturday, Team India is all set for their second and final warm-up affair for the 2023 Men’s ODI World Cup against Netherlands.
Earlier, India’s first warm-up game was called-off without a ball being bowled in Guwahati.
Netherlands, who made it through to their fifth World Cup appearance after finishing second behind Sri Lanka in the Qualifiers event, will also be playing their second warm-up match at the Greenfield Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram.
In Tuesday’s game, hosts India might miss the services of their former India captain and run-machine Virat Kohli.
As per a report in Cricbuzz, Team India travelled to Thiruvananthapuram from Guwahati, a four-hour long journey via flight, on a special aircraft on Sunday evening however, Kohli was not part of the group as he requested the team management for a leave owing to a personal emergency and hence flew to Mumbai.
The report however, further said that Kohli will be joining the Indian team in Thiruvananthapuram later on Monday.
While fans will be expecting for some cricket action by Team India in their final warm-up game against Netherlands, the weather in Thiruvananthapuram has some other plans. As per Accuweather, the forecast for Tuesday is – “Cloudy with a couple of showers and a thunderstorm”, probability of precipitation is 96 percent and that of a thunderstorm is 46.
Till now, three warm-up games have been affected by rain, two of which were played at Thiruvananthapuram – while the South Africa-Afghanistan match was washed out, Australia-Netherlands tie was reduced to a 23-overs contest before being abandoned.
It seems that the Men In Blues’s second warm-up game might meet a similar fate however, skipper Rohit Sharma is hardly bothered after terming these fixtures as mere “formality” for Team India, who have been a busy side heading into the marquee event.
Recently, India lifted the 2023 Asia Cup trophy and later defeated Australia at home in a three-match ODI series last week.
India will begin their World Cup 2023 campaign on October 8 against five-time champions Australia in Chennai before facing Afghanistan at the Arun Jaitely stadium in the national capital on October 11.
The Men In Blue will then take on arch-rivals Pakistan in a highly-anticipated affair at the Narendra Modi stadium in Ahmedabad on October 14.
India Squad for ICC World Cup 2023: Rohit Sharma (C), Hardik Pandya (VC), Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav
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