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Union Sports Minister Anurag Thakur conveyed his best wishes to the Indian cricket team, which will launch its campaign at the ongoing ICC ODI World Cup against Australia on Sunday.
Speaking to ANI at his native Himachal Pradesh on Sunday, Thakur said after the rousing performance in the Hangzhou Asian Games, where the Indian contingent recorded its biggest medal haul at 107, he was hopeful that the men's cricket team, under skipper Rohit Sharma, will win the coveted trophy. "I want to extend my best wishes to the Indian Cricket team for the ICC World Cup. We are launching our campaign against Australia today. After our success in the Asian Games, I am hopeful that our cricket team will lift the World Cup trophy as well. PM Modi's vision to encourage sportspersons and the provision of new-age sporting infrastructure for them, combined with the hard work put in by our athletes, got us our best-ever medal haul at the Asian Games," he added. Australia will go into the explosive World Cup fixture with a clear head-to-head advantage, having a win-loss record of 83-58 against the hosts. However, home favourites India will be high on confidence after winning the recent ODI series against the Baggy Greens 2-1. Having plied their trade in the same colours in IPL cricket, several players in both teams are aware of each other's strenghts and weaknesses and will go into the game full of confidence and belief. The two teams last squared off in Chennai in March this year, with Australia prevailing in a close game. Australia, however, is sweating on the fitness of star all-rounder Marcus Stoinis while India is also awaiting word from the team's doctors on the availability of opener Shubman Gill for their campaign opener. India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Hardik Pandya (vc), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav. Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Steve Smith, Alex Carey, Josh Inglis, Sean Abbott, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitch Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, David Warner, Adam Zampa and Mitchell Starc. (ANI)
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