Daily Times

DUBAI: In what will be a first if nothing changes in the next few months, not a single captain from the previous edition of the men’s ODI World Cup will lead a team at the 2023 men’s ODI World Cup later this year in India. There have been retirements and changes at the top in the intervening period, and Kane Williamson is likely to miss the 2023 event after the knee injury he sustained at the IPL. New Zealand were the only team to have the same captain as the previous edition – Williamson was named Player of the Tournament in 2019 after leading New Zealand to the final and scoring 578 runs in nine innings along the way. While New Zealand are yet to name a replacement, Tom Latham, who has led the side in Williamson’s absence a number of times, is likeliest to lead them. As such, it’s possible that some of the men leading their teams at the moment might not be in the position by the time the World Cup comes around.

At the other teams that have qualified directly: Gulbadin Naib is still around, but Afghanistan have been led by Hashmatullah Shahidi for a while now; Australia are now led by Pat Cummins, with Aaron Finch having retired from international cricket; Bangladesh have Tamim Iqbal in place of Mashrafe Mortaza, who hasn’t played internationally since March 2020; Eoin Morgan retired from international cricket last year after seven-and-a-half years as their white-ball captain, which included the 2019 World Cup trophy – Jos Buttler is in charge now; Rohit Sharma is India’s all-format captain, having taken over in ODIs after Virat Kohli was removed from the position in late 2021; Babar Azam has been Pakistan’s captain in ODIs since May 2020, having replaced Sarfaraz Ahmed.

Sri Lanka and West Indies, who were in the ten-team main event last time, will have to play the qualifiers this year. But there are changes there too. Sri Lanka have Dasun Shanaka in charge, in place of Dimuth Karunaratne, while West Indies are led by Shai Hope now – Kieron Pollard and Nicholas Pooran had led them after Jason Holder lost the top job following a poor 2019 World Cup. South Africa, too, have not qualified for the main event yet – Ireland can still edge past them if they win all three matches against Bangladesh in the upcoming series and improve their net run-rate from -0.382 to -0.076 or better. South Africa are now led by Temba Bavuma, with Faf du Plessis out of the picture at the moment.

The men’s ODI World Cup is likely to start on October 5 and end on November 19. The qualifying event, meanwhile, will take place in Zimbabwe between June 18 and July 9. Along with Sri Lanka and West Indies, Netherlands, Zimbabwe, Nepal, Oman, Scotland, USA, UAE, and one of Ireland and South Africa will be part of the event. The top two teams from the qualifier will advance to the World Cup.