Former South African skipper Ab de Villiers has made his predictions for the ODI World Cup later this year, as he picked up his choice of four semifinalists for the mega event in India. The buzz around the World Cup is on the rise, with the teams beginning their preparation for the marquee event.
A total of ten teams are participating in ICC World Cup 2023. A total of 48 matches will be played over 46 days across the 10 venues. Defending champions England and New Zealand will be up against each other in the inaugural game at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. The final is also scheduled to take place in Ahmedabad.
In a Q&A session on his Youtube Channel, Ab de Villiers picked India, England, and Australia as his first three choices of semifinalists for the World Cup in India as these teams have a got a good chance to do well in the Indian conditions and have gone in with South Africa over Pakistan as the four semifinalists for the mega event later this year.
“Definitely, India. I think they will go on to win it over there again. It’s going to be a fairytale World Cup. India, England, and Australia got to go with the big three. Then I want to – go with South Africa, even though Pakistan has a really good chance as well. So the fourth team will be South Africa,” Ab de Villiers said.
India will have good chances of doing well in the home conditions as they have got a formidable unit to do well in India while defending champions England will try to retain the championship after four long years while Australia is one of the most successful teams in the 50-over World Cup winning five championship titles and on the other hand South Africa will look to upto the fighting performance in the marquee event in India.
I Am Going To Stick To It Because I Think The Wickets Will Be Good – AB de Villiers
Ab de Villiers admitted that it was risky for him to choose three non -sub-continent teams in the Indian conditions and believes that the wicket conditions would be good throughout the tournament, which gives good chances for the visiting teams and predicts England and India to make it into the final of the marquee event in India and wants his home side South Africa to do well in the World Cup.
“I’ve gone with three non-sub-continent teams there, which is very risky. But I am going to stick to it because I think the wickets will be good. I don’t think the World Cup is going to see bad wickets during the duration of the tournament.”
“England and India in the final. If they can find each other in that final, I think that will be fantastic, even though I really want my South African boys to be there,” AB de Villiers added.
South Africa will begin their quest for their first-ever World Cup title on October 7 against Sri Lanka in Delhi. The Proteas had won their final two matches of the super league against the Netherlands to claim the 8th spot in the ODI Super League table.