The 13th ODI World Cup will take place in India in October-November, 2023, and the countdown will begin at the start of 2023. In all, 10 teams will participate in the World Cup, of which eight, including hosts India, have already qualified.
The other teams to have qualified are England, New Zealand, Australia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and West Indies.
The teams qualified by virtue of their performance in the 2020-2023 ICC Cricket World Cup Super League, which consisted of ODI matches played during the three years starting from 2020. The top seven teams were supposed to qualify, but West Indies managed to qualify despite being in the 8th place, as top-placed India had already qualified as the hosts.
The remaining two berths will be taken up by the top two teams from the 2023 World Cup Qualifier that will take place in Zimbabwe in June-July 2023.
Which teams will play in the 2023 World Cup Qualifiers?
The bottom five teams will have to play in the Qualifier. The once-mighty South Africans are yet to recover from the retirements of Faf Du Plessis, Quinton de Kock, AB de Villiers, Morne Morkel, and Dale Steyn. Still, they will get a chance to improve their standing by performing well against England and Netherlands in their backyard early next year and thereby qualify directly for the World Cup.
The remaining four teams of the bottom five, namely: Sri Lanka, Ireland, Zimbabwe, and the Netherlands, will play in the Qualifier.
Zimbabwe will be one of the favorites to qualify for the World Cup as the host nation in the Qualifier. They have a quality pace attack, and the presence of all-rounders like Sikandar Raza will be an added advantage for them. The Netherlands also has a good bowling attack, but their batting might need to be better.
Sri Lanka would have enjoyed the conditions in India, but their path to probable qualification will take a lot of work. They have had a few internal disciplinary issues as well, and it will take some serious work on their part to qualify for the tournament.
Ireland is also a decent side with some hard-hitting batters who can take the game away from any opposition on a given day. However, they will have to improve their batting technique to sustain for a longer period in 50-over cricket.
