“India And Pakistan Not Favourites To Win The 2023 ODI World Cup,” Says Former Sri Lankan Skipper Kumar Sangakkara

Former Sri Lankan skipper Kumar Sangakkara made the headlines today after he made a bold prediction about the two teams who are not favourites to win the 2023 ODI World Cup.

According to the Sri Lankan batting great, Team India and Pakistan are not the favourites to win the 2023 ODI World Cup. For the unversed, the mega event is going to be held entirely in India for the very first time.

Team India last won the ICC ODI World Cup in 2011 year when MS Dhoni and Co defied the odds and made it to the competition’s finals.

The Men in Blue got the better of the Sri Lankan cricket team in the final showdown. Notably, they clinch their second ODI World Cup in their history.

On the other hand, Pakistan won the ODI World Cup for the first time under the captaincy of Imran Khan in 1992. Pakistan beat England to win their first title. Meanwhile, the forthcoming edition of the ICC ODI World Cup will be staged in October-November.

It will be quite interesting to see which team comes out on top in the battle. England were the champions of the previous edition of the ICC ODI World Cup. They beat New Zealand in the finals based on the boundary-count rule.

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Former Sri Lankan Skipper Kumar Sangakkara reckons India and Pakistan are not the favourites of the ICC ODI World Cup 2023

The former Sri Lanka skipper reckons that the subcontinental sides will not be the favourites to win the mega event. According to him, several foreign players have picked up lessons on how to play spin.

While speaking on a Star Sports program, the former cricketer stated that spin bowling has reached out to all parts of the world because of cricket. According to him, England, Australia and New Zealand have managed to learn how to play spin.

Sangakkara also further added that these three teams have learnt to play spin much better than even the subcontinental teams in the first place.

“I think cricket’s changed quite a lot since 2011, in those days I would say that in Asian conditions, it favours the subcontinental players. But over the years I think that England, Australia and New Zealand have learnt to play spin a lot better than even the subcontinental sides,” Sangakkara explained.

The batting great further echoed that IPL has indeed paved the way for batters to pick up lessons on the go. He highlighted that IPL has indeed helped quite a lot as far as the exposure is concerned.

“There are a lot of reverse sweeps, paddle shots, and sweeps, all of these new strokes using their feet. That, I believe, has changed the way we view cricket on the subcontinent. IPL has helped a lot in terms of exposure as well,” Kumar Sangakkara stated on Star Sports.