ICC World Cup 2023: The defending champions England cricket team arrived in India on Thursday ahead of the first warmup match against India on Saturday. In the first match of ICC World Cup 2023, the finals of the previous World Cup edition will be recreated as England will face New Zealand on 5 October at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. However, the English players faced a host of difficulties before landing in India.
England's star batter Jonny Bairstow shared about the ordeal on social media on how the team waited to land in Guwahati after 38 hours of takeoff. In the Instagram story, rush is visible in the aircraft and other members of the English squad are sitting visibly frustrated.
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England will be competing at various locations across the nation, including Dharamsala, Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Pune, and Kolkata, for eight of their matches. The sole exceptions are Chennai and Hyderabad.
Ahead of the first warmup match, England coach Matthew Mott spoke about the team preparation and informed that they have picked up the squad with great flexibility.
"We're close but it's still a while away. And we don't know how guys will pull up, [it is] a quick turnaround when we land in India. We've got a rough idea, then it's about opposition, whether we go batter-heavy, bowler-heavy. The squad we have picked gives us great flexibility.
“I do [expect to use more than 13], because of the venues, the travel, certain players thrive, others don't go so well. That's why when you pick the squad, you do a lot of 'what if?' scenarios.”
Jos Buttler (c), Moeen Ali, Gus Atkinson, Jonny Bairstow, Sam Curran, Liam Livingstone, Dawid Malan, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes, Reece Topley, David Willey, Mark Wood, Chris Woakes.
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