R Ashwin Critical Of THIS 'One Thing' In ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 Schedule

The ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 schedule was announced on June 27 at Mumbai. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and International Cricket Council (ICC) finalised a list of two 10 venues for the mega event that will go on for one-and-a-half months. The tournament begins on October 5 and the final will be played on November 19. Both the first and final match will be played at the Narendra Modi stadium in Ahmedabad.

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The schdule looks perfect as India will celebrate the festival of cricket for more than one month. But R Ashwin has one little issue with it. Speaking on his YouTube channel, Ashwin was critical of the start time of the matches in the tournament. The day-night matches start at 2 pm IST. Ashwin feels the day-night games should have had a 12 noon. The reason Ashwin gave behind such a move was to negate the dew factor. "But one thing that I wished for when it comes to the timing of the tournament didn't materialize. I wanted all the games to start at 11.30 AM or 12 PM to completely negate the dew factor. See, this World Cup will take place in October," said Ashwin.

__ Team India's fixtures for ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023 __

#CWC23 #TeamIndia pic.twitter.com/LIPUVnJEeu

— BCCI (@BCCI) June 27, 2023

Ashwin says India are favourites to win Cup

Ashwin is also of the opinion that India can win the World Cup this year. He said, "India have a great chance to win the trophy this year. In fact, we went into the 2019 World Cup as strong favorites. But all the teams have had equal chances during every ICC event. If you ask me, any cricket match starts 50:50. But India do start as favorites ahead of this 2023 World Cup."

The 36-year-old slammed the critics of the Indian cricket team. There are doubters who feel India will be under massive pressure to win the third title. "Of course, the whole social media buzz will be about whether India will be able to get an ICC trophy. We have been following this theme for so many years now of asking, "Can India end the ICC Trophy drought?" If you ask me, this is ridiculous, guys. India is a strong team. Except for a few factors, India has a great chance this time around," said Ashwin.