ICC World Cup 2023: All 10 Captains Pose with the Cup as Mega Cricket Carnival Begins in India – WATCH

The ICC World Cup 2023 begins on Thursday and ahead of the showpiece event, the skippers of all 10 teams gathered in Ahmedabad at the Captain’s Day event where they spoke about their preparations and also interacted with media personnel.

All the captains then clicked pictures with the World Cup Trophy. A clip from the shoot was shared on the social media handles of the International Cricket Council (ICC). It also featured Eoin Morgan, former England captain who led his team to a first-ever title win in the previous edition of the tournament.

While the captains posed with the cup, the tournament’s official anthem – ‘Dil Jashn Bole’ – could be heard in the background.

“How about THAT to kick off the tournament? We are just 1 day away from #CWC23,” the caption of the video read.

Defending champions England face New Zealand in the WC 23 opener

Jos Buttler believes that the afterglow of winning the 2019 World Cup is long gone as his team is on the same boat as nine others ahead of the opener against New Zealand, starting Thursday.

At the ICC’s Captain’s Day event here, leaders of all 10 teams sat together for a chat ahead of the 48-game tournament to be played across 10 venues over the next 45 days, touching upon points such as the pressure of expectations, their strengths and what they have learnt from the past editions.

“I don’t see us as defending champions. We’re very much in the same boat now as everybody sat here on the eve of the tournament trying to win it,” said England skipper Buttler.

“We feel ready. We’re very excited. We all know India is such a fantastic place to play cricket and we’re really excited about the tournament starting tomorrow,” he added.

His opposite number, New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson, who will miss the tournament opener, feels that teams have gone through changes over the course of the last four years.

“Like Jos mentioned, you sort of come to another event and everybody certainly starts from the same position and starts again,” he said.

“You go from tournament to tournament, teams change, opposition, conditions, so you know for us it’s very much focusing on the style of cricket that we want to keep committing to and give us the best chance of putting out our best performance,” Williamson said.

(With Agency Inputs)