The International Cricket Council (ICC) has agreed to the Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) demand to field a non-Asian team in the 2023 World Cup warm-up matches, scheduled to begin in India this October.
The PCB in a note to the ICC expressed its lack of interest in playing a warm-up match against Afghanistan, saying the men in green will already face the neighboring country during the Asia Cup ahead of the mega event.
After announcing the schedule of the mega event on Tuesday, it was confirmed that Pakistan’s warm-up matches will be against New Zealand and Australia on September 29 and October 3 in Hyderabad. This means they won’t face any Asian teams before the tournament.
Here is Pakistan’s schedule for ICC World Cup 2023:
19 October Qualifier 1 at Hyderabad Vs
12 October Qualifier 2 at Hyderabad Vs
15 October India Vs Ahmedabad
20 October Australia Vs Bangalore
23 October Afghanistan Vs Chennai
27 October South Africa in Chennai vs
31st October Kolkata Vs Bangladesh
4 November vs New Zealand Bangalore (match of the day)
12 November England Vs Kolkata
The day match will start at 10:00 am Pakistan Standard Time (PST) and all other matches will be day-night matches starting at 01:30 pm (PST).
Eight teams have qualified for the event through the Cricket World Cup Super League and will occupy the final two spots in the ICC Cricket World Cup qualifiers to be held in Zimbabwe.
If the West Indies qualify, they will be Q1 regardless of where they finish in the qualifiers.
If Sri Lanka qualify, they will be Q2 regardless of where they finish in the qualifiers.
If Pakistan qualify for the semi-finals, they will play in Kolkata.
If India qualify for the semi-finals, they will play in Mumbai rather than against Pakistan, in which case they will play in Kolkata.
The tournament will be played in a round-robin format where all teams will play a total of 45 league matches against each other.
The top four teams will qualify for the semi-finals, which will be held on November 15 in Mumbai and November 16 in Kolkata. Semi-finals and finals will have reserve days.
