India To Play Two Warm-Up Games Before The Titanic Clash Against Pakistan On 24 October!

ICC T-20 World Cup 2021: India To Play Two Warm-Up Games Before The Titanic Clash Against Pakistan On 24 October!

The biggest cricketing event of the year has started. Yes! We are talking about the ICC Men T-20 World Cup which has kicked off on the 17th of October. The tournament was supposed to take place in India but due to the huge covid-19 outbreak in the country, the event shifted to United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Oman. Board Of Control For Cricket In India (BCCI) is organizing the tournament. 

The tournament has started with a small league which is being played between the teams who didn’t get into the top 8 teams. The first round of the tournament is going on between teams Scotland, Oman, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Papua New Guinea, Netherlands, Ireland, and Namibia. The top four teams from this round will move ahead to the super 12 where the top 8 eight teams in rankings are already waiting. 

Well, before the start of round 2 i.e super 12 round. Every team has to play two warm-up games to get their preparation done. The hosting nation India will also have two important games ahead of the titanic clash against the arch-rivals Pakistan on the 24th of October. The Men In Blue are all set for their warm-up games against England on the 18th of October, and against Australia on the 20th Of October. The match will be shown live on the star-sports network and Disney Hotstar. 

The first warm-up match of India against England will be played at 7:30 pm according to Indian Standard Time (IST). The second warm-up match against Australia will be played in the afternoon at 3:30 pm IST. Both matches will be played at Dubai International Stadium. 

In the first round, Oman and Scotland have started their journey with a win over Papua New Guinea, and Bangladesh respectively. Oman bagged a huge victory by 10 wickets over PNG.

On the other hand, Scotland stunned Bangladesh by beating them by 6 runs. 

Changes In India Squad: Shardul Thakur Comes In For Axar Patel!

Just before the World Cup, the Indian team has announced an important change to their squad. All-rounder Axar Patel will get replaced with Shardul Thakur who had a good season of IPL with the ball. Though Axar Patel will stay on the list of Stand-by players. Thakur has 13 wickets in the UAE leg alone. Though he didn’t do much with the bat.

BCCI has also added some new names to their bubble. They are Avesh Khan, Umran Malik, Harshal Patel, Lukman Meriwala, Venkatesh Iyer, Karn Sharma, Shahbaz Ahmed, and K Gowtham. They will be available for the Indian team. 

Twitter Sparked As MS Dhoni Joined The Indian Team In New Role!

As the world cup has started every team has kicked off their preparation. After the end of the Indian Premier League, players are now joining the bio-bubbles of their respective teams. In this chain, the Indian team also get united on Saturday for the preparation of the biggest cricketing event of the year. 

But a sight that captured the whole attention of fans was seeing MS Dhoni in the Indian Think-Tank squad as a new role. Significantly, MS Dhoni has been named as Mentor for team India for the World Cup. 

Here you can see how BCCI warmly welcomed the legendary player, 

Extending a very warm welcome to the KING 👑@msdhoni is back with #TeamIndia and in a new role!💪 pic.twitter.com/Ew5PylMdRy

— BCCI (@BCCI) October 17, 2021

The former captain has won all the major ICC tournaments for India. Thus, seeing his experience, BCCI wants MS to help the team out in the World Cup. India will start their world cup campaign against arch-rivals Pakistan on October 24. Stay tuned with us for more cricketing news and updates.