Always an advantage to play against good teams first: Sunil Gavaskar on India’s ODI WC 2023 schedule

Legendary Sunil Gavaskar feels it will be an advantage for India to play good teams first in the upcoming ODI World Cup. India will begin their World Cup campaign against Australia at Chennai on October 8. Subsequently, the hosts will take on Afghanistan and then they will meet arch-rivals Pakistan on October 15 at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad.

India will look to make inroads early in the quadrennial tournament and will look to hit the ground running in the big event. In fact, in the previous 2019 World Cup, India registered wins against South Africa, Australia and Pakistan in their first four matches of the tournament while the game against New Zealand was abandoned due to rain.

The hosts will look to be at their best in the upcoming ODI showpiece and make the most of their own conditions.

The Little Master feels the team can recover in the later matches even if they get off to a losing start against Australia.

“Absolutely. It would have been even more difficult if you were to play Australia in a must-win last match. I feel it is always an advantage to play against the good teams first,” Gavaskar said on Star Sports.

“If you don’t get a good result, you have chances later. If you probably play against some weak team later, you will know what you need to do against them and with what margin you need to win,” he added

Meanwhile, in the 1983 World Cup, India kicked off their campaign with a 34-run win against the reigning champions West Indies, which gave Kapil Dev’s team a lot of confidence.

“In 1983 we played the first match against the West Indies. They were the defending champions and we defeated them. It was a two-day game because it had rained and the play resumed on the next day. There also we registered a win. The self-confidence increased because of that as till then our performance in World Cups wasn’t anything special. We hadn’t won even one match until then,” he added.

The Rohit Sharma-led team will aim to tee off on a high in the World Cup and maintain winning impetus throughout the competition.