The much awaited ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 is due to kick off on Thursday, October 5 in Ahmedabad, with the reigning champions, England, taking against the runners-up from the previous tournament, New Zealand. On October 8 in Chennai, Team India will play the five-time defending champions, Australia. The first day of the World Cup has arrived, and even though he wasn’t selected for the team, veteran India opener Shikhar Dhawan sent his teammates warm wishes. The 37-year-old is rooting for India to win the trophy a third time and return it to their country.
India Shake! Boys, let’s color the planet blue! I wish you luck as you travel to the World Cup. Bring home that trophy! Dhawan posted on his X account, “#TeamIndia #WorldCup2023.
See Shikhar Dhawan X post:
Chak De India! 🇮🇳 Let’s paint the world blue, boys! All the best on your World Cup journey. Bring that trophy home! 🏏🏆 #TeamIndia #WorldCup2023 pic.twitter.com/pjC78lle4v
— Shikhar Dhawan (@SDhawan25) October 5, 2023
Dhawan has a stellar ODI World Cup track record.
In ICC (ICC) (International Cricket Council (ICC)) competitions, Shikhar Dhawan has a very strong record. The 37-year-old won the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy Golden Bat prize for scoring the most runs during the tournament.
He played in 10 matches throughout the course of two Cricket World Cups, scoring a staggering 537 runs at an astounding average of 53.7 with three hundreds. At The Oval, he suffered a thumb injury against Australia that required him to miss the remainder of the 2019 World Cup. It is important to note that he had scored 100 runs in that specific match, and that absence was a major factor in India’s loss of the championship.
The cricketer, who was born in Delhi, has played in 167 games and amassed 6793 runs, scoring an average of 44.11 since making his ODI debut against Australia in October 2020. In this format, he has so far scored 17 centuries and 39 half-centuries. After an ODI series against Bangladesh in December 2022, he didn’t play in another international game.
Indian World Cup team roster:
Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, and Mohammed Shami are among the players who contribute to Rohit Sharma’s bowling attack.