The ODI World Cup 2023 is just a few weeks away from starting in India. The world will witness the opening game on October 5 in Ahmedabad between the two finalists of the last edition in 2019. England will take on New Zealand at Narendra Modi Stadium.
Team India will play their opening game on October 8 in Chennai against five-time champion Australia. The Indian selection committee announced the 15-member squad on Monday, which was identical to the team that is playing in the ongoing Asia Cup 2023.
Tilak Varam, Prasidh Krishna, and Sanju Samson were the three omissions, and the rest of the squad was similar. However, many believe that Samson should have gotten a knod at least ahead of Suryakumar Yadav, who hasn’t had convincing numbers in the 50-over cricket.
However, former South African star AB de Villiers said that he was relieved to see SKY in the Indian World Cup squad. In a video uploaded on his YouTube channel, De Villiers said that he is a big fan of the No. 1 ranked T20I batter because of the way he plays the game.
It will not be a wrong statement to say that Suryakumar is currently the best T20I batsman in the world, but he hasn’t cracked the code of batting in ODIs. Despite that, De Villiers said, “I am relieved to see SKY in World Cup squad. You guys know I am a big fan. He plays in a similar fashion to how I used to in T20 cricket.”
The Mumbai batter has played 26 ODIs and scored 511 runs at 24.33 with only two half-centuries, while in T20Is, he has scored 1841 runs in 50 innings at 46.02 with three centuries and 15 half-centuries. De Villiers is hopeful that SKY can bring his T20I game to ODIs and play some good innings for India in the upcoming World Cup.
