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AB de Villiers, the former South Africa captain and one of the greatest batsmen of all time, has revealed his predictions for the ODI World Cup 2023, which will be held in India. De Villiers, who retired from international cricket in 2018, has picked three non-subcontinent teams among his four teams to make it to the last four of the tournament.
De Villiers said that he has gone with three non-subcontinental teams, which is very risky, considering the conditions and the home advantage for India. He predicted that India would go on to win the World Cup in home conditions, and it would be a fairy tale finish for them. He also added that he backs his home team, South Africa, to be one of the semi-finalists, even though Pakistan has a very good chance to qualify too.
“I have gone with three non-subcontinental teams, which is very risky, but I will stick to it,” De Villiers said in an interactive session on his YouTube channel. He predicted the wickets in the World Cup to be good throughout the tournament, and we won't see any bad wickets.
Justifying including South Africa in the top 4, he stated, “Our boys will be there, we’ve got a very good team, a bit inexperienced, but a very good team. I know Rob Walter, our white ball coach, knows exactly what he is doing.
The World Cup is scheduled to kick off on October 5, in India, and go on until November 19, when the final will be played in Ahmedabad. The tournament will happen as per the round-robin format in a single group, and the top four ranked teams out of the ten will qualify for the semi-finals. India will start off their campaign against arch-rivals Australia on October 8, at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
