Gautam Gambhir names player to watch out for ahead of ODI World Cup 2023

The 2023 World Cup kicks off on October 5 in India. The first match of the tournament will be played between England and New Zealand at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. The two teams played out a World Cup final for the ages four years earlier at Lords. England won the game by the bearest of margins on boundary count.  The final and the India-Pakistan game will be held at the same stadium.

Ahead of the tournament, Gautam Gambhir was asked who was his player to watch out for ahead of the tournament amongst the likes of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Kane Williamson, David Warner, Babar Azam, Jos Buttler and the likes. To this, Gambhir picked up Babar as the player to watch out for in an interaction with Rounak Kapoor on Star Sports. Babar will relish the batting friendly conditions on offer in India and will want to have a great tournament so that Pakistan can go all the way.

Here is the viral video of Gautam Gambhir:

Babar Azam has scored 5409 runs in ODIs for Pakistan

When it comes to Babar, he last led Pakistan to the semi-finals of the recently concluded Asia Cup. Now his next task will be to lead with with his band of loyal soldiers at the 2023 World Cup. The Men in Green have won a World Cup in 1992 under the leadership og Imran Khan. In 1999 Pakistan made it to the finals in England but lost to the mighty Australians who went on to dominate world cricket for a number of years.

The Men in Green had a good outing in 2011 when the World Cup was co-hosted by Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and India. Pakistan made it to the semi-finals but lost to India in a high-octane clash by 29 runs at Mohali. The Babar Azam-led side will aim to win a second World Cup in familiar climes. Ten venues will be used in India to host the World Cup games.  The format for the World Cup will be the round-robin as it happened in 2019.