Lucknow
Lucknow ceased to exist as a cricket venue once the old Test ground at the university had been submerged by a river, but a new stadium has since been constructed, not out of town as in Nagpur, but on the city’s outskirts. Neighbouring Kanpur boomed as a cricket venue when Lucknow was in abeyance, now Lucknow has taken the lead as a Test venue and the base of the IPL franchise Lucknow Super Giants for which Mark Wood plays. The stadium, being new, has a cordon sanitaire around it, so crowds can be controlled. The police and army like to be as closely involved with the cricketers as possible in the hope of being captured on one of the many TV channels which cover cricket. Until now, however, the pitches have been uneven, as new pitches always are.
Pune
The old down-town Gymkhana club ground saw the fourth highest first-class innings, 443* by BB Nimbalkar, and England’s introduction in 1981-2 to a T20 opening batsman ahead of his time, Kris Srikkanth. But as a private member’s club its capacity was too small for the IPL era and a new ground was constructed on the outskirts of rapidly-expanding Pune, near the main road which dives down the Ghats to Mumbai, with a capacity of 42,000: a medium-sized stadium in Indian terms. England were the guests when the new stadium hosted its first international in 2012 and soon discovered that it was one of the best batting squares. The nearest Sam Curran has come to an international century was when he scored an unbeaten 95 off 83 balls against India at Pune in 2021.
Kolkata
Eden Gardens is one of the semi-final venues. Pitches have normally been slow and low, although they can be pacier for IPL games, but the unique feature of the ground is the noise, which is packed between stands on all sides. Before the Ahmedabad stadium, Eden Gardens probably held the record for the largest crowd at a cricket match (some tickets used to be sold on the black market so official figures are not reliable), possibly reaching 100,000. The first World Cup final outside
Latest news from Cricket World Cup
Sir Geoffrey Boycott criticised England’s lack of preparation for their continuing World Cup woes but spared captain Jos Buttler the bulk of the blame.
Buttler accepted his future was out of his own hands as England crashed to an eight-wicket defeat to Sri Lanka in Bengaluru, which has left the defence of their title hanging by the thinnest of threads.
Head coach Matthew Mott has written off England’s chances after four defeats in five games, which Boycott argued was the result of turning up in India just over a week before the campaign began.
“History shows that England rarely bat well in India where the ball spins,” Boycott said. “Our guys are okay on flat pitches but if it turns they have a problem.
“The best way to try and overcome that would have been for our squad of players to get to India early and play four or five warm-up matches. What did England do? Plan only two warm-up games with one getting rained off. Not smart planning.”
Best of the latest odds
- India: 11/10
- South Africa: 7/2
- Australia: 7/2
- New Zealand: 6/1
- Sri Lanka: 100/1
- Pakistan: 100/1
- England: 150/1
- Afghanistan: 150/1
- Bangladesh: 1000/1
- Netherlands: 2500/1
Odds correct as of October 28.
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England’s squad for the 2023 World Cup
Jos Buttler (Lancashire – captain)
Moeen Ali (Warwickshire)
Gus Atkinson (Surrey)
Jonny Bairstow (Yorkshire)
Harry Brook (Yorkshire)
Sam Curran (Surrey)
Liam Livingstone (Lancashire)
Dawid Malan (Yorkshire)
Adil Rashid (Yorkshire)
Joe Root (Yorkshire)
Ben Stokes (Durham)
David Willey (Northamptonshire)
Mark Wood (Durham)
Chris Woakes (Warwickshire)