Bangladesh to play two-warm matches as a preparation before they enter the main event of ICC World Cup 2023, scheduled to begin in October, India.
Bangladesh will face the 2019 World Cup winner England before they take down the second-qualifying team from the World Cup qualifiers as the opponent of the first warm-up match.
The two warm-up matches will be staged at Guwahati on September 29 and October 2 respectively. Meanwhile, the Assam Cricket Association tweeted that England will also play a warm-up match against India at this venue on September 30.
Bangladesh will begin their World Cup campaign against Afghanistan on October 7 at Dharamsala Cricket Stadium. Following that, the Tigers will face England on October 10 at Dharmamshala again, and Chennai will stage New Zealand on October 14.
While Pune will get the hosting rights for the India-Bangladesh game. The MCA Stadium in Pune will host the game featuring Bangladesh and Australia as well, the last game of the league stage.
Bangladesh will face South Africa at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai fifth game on 24 October.
Before their last league game against Australia, the Tigers will face the second qualifying team in Delhi on 6 November.
There will be a total of 10 venues – Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Dharamsala, Delhi, Chennai, Lucknow, Pune, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Kolkata.
The long-awaited, and much-delayed, World Cup schedule was finally released by the ICC and BCCI at an event in Mumbai on Tuesday, just 100 days before the start of the tournament. In comparison, the fixtures for the 2019 World Cup in England and Wales and the 2015 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand were released more than 12 months in advance.
The format will be the same as it was in 2019, with ten teams playing each other once in the league phase and the top four qualifying for the semi-finals. India qualified for the event as hosts, while Afghanistan, Australia, England, Bangladesh, New Zealand, Pakistan, and South Africa made it by finishing in the top eight of the 2020-2023 World Cup Super League. The remaining two teams will be identified at the ongoing World Cup qualifiers in Zimbabwe, which is being contested by Sri Lanka, West Indies, Ireland, Nepal, Netherlands, Oman, Scotland, UAE, USA and Zimbabwe.
