Former England skipper Michael Vaughan has predicted that whoever beat India will win the World Cup 2023. India will enter the ODI showpiece as one of the favorites as they will be playing in their own conditions.
In fact, the last three ODI World Cups have been won by the hosting team and India will be looking to continue the same trend. India has been in fine form as they recently won the Asia Cup convincingly after hammering Sri Lanka by 10 wickets in the summit clash.
After lifting their eighth Asia Cup title, India continued their winning impetus against Australia. Team India won the first ODI at the IS Bindra Stadium, Mohali by five wickets. Subsequently, the hosts won the second ODI of the series by 99 runs (DLS method) at the Holkar Cricket Stadium, Indore on Sunday.
India posted a massive score of 399 runs on the board after Shreyas Iyer and Shubman Gill scored fine centuries. Iyer and Gill scored 105 and 104 runs respectively and they also added a huge alliance of 200 runs for the second wicket.
India’s stand-in captain KL Rahul continued his good form as he scored 52 runs whereas Suryakumar Yadav added the finishing touches with a blistering 37-ball 72.
On the other hand, Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin scalped three wickets apiece to skittle out Australia for only 218 runs. Thus, the home team has taken an impregnable lead of 2-0 in the series.
Vaughan took to X and wrote, “It’s quite clear to me… Whoever beats #India will win the WC… India’s batting line up on Indian pitches is ridiculous… Plus they have all the bowling options covered… it’s the only the pressure of the burden that could stop them.”
The third ODI of the series will be played at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Rajkot on Wednesday.
