'If you play some weak team...': Gavaskar's eye-opener on India's World Cup 2023 schedule, starting against Australia

Gavaskar made a telling inference on India's World Cup schedule and their opening game against Pat Cummins-led side.

Exactly three months and a week later Team India will begin their 2023 ODI World Cup campaign. While the blockbuster tournament will kick off from October 5 onwards as per the schedule released by the ICC last week at an event in Mumbai, India will start their journey three days later at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai against five-time world champions Australia. And months ahead of the big game, batting legend Sunil Gavaskar made a telling inference on India's World Cup schedule and their opening game against Pat Cummins-led side.

Sunil Gavaskar makes a telling inference on India starting ODI World Cup campaign vs Australia (Getty)

The tournament will kick off with the repeat of the 2019 final - defending champions England against New Zealand - at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. The host nation will be playing the third match of the tournament while the much-awaited marquee game, against Pakistan will be on October 15 in Ahmedabad.

Speaking to Sta Sports, Gavaskar opined that it is advantage to India that they are starting their World Cup campaign against a tough opponent in Australia rather than facing such an opponent in a must-win game later in the league phase. He further explained that facing a stronger team will give India the chance to rethink their strategy against weaker opponents if the results go otherwise at the start of the World Cup.

"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. "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."

The former India batter then recalled the team's victorious 1983 World Cup run when they had kicked off their proceedings against defending champions West Indies in a rain-interrupted game.

"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," the former India skipper added.

The Rohit Sharma-led side will be playing across nine of the 10 World Cup venues across the nation. Their final game in the league phase will be against a qualifier on November 11.