'India's First Warm-up Game Washed-out...': Aakash Chopra Says IND-AUS Series Was Valuable

Persistent rain on Saturday washed out the World Cup warm-up match between India and England at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati. It began raining a little before the start of the match on Saturday afternoon, which resulted in the toss being delayed but later in the evening the umpires decided to abandon the contest, a little before 6pm local time owing to inclement weather.

Former India cricketer Aakash Chopra took to social media to suggest that given that ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 warm-up games are being washed out, the India-Australia three-match ODI series might prove to be crucial.

“India’s first warmup game washed-out in Guwahati. Second game against Netherlands is in Thiruvananthapuram…which, by the way, is getting a fair amount of rain too. Well…suddenly, it seems that the #IndvAus series was more valuable than both teams considered it to be’ he posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

India, who travelled all the way to Guwahati on Thursday after completing a 2-1 series win over Australia, will now fly to Thiruvananthapuram for their second warm-up match against the Netherlands on October 3.

England, who arrived in India a day before their first warm-up match, will remain in Guwahati to play their second and final warm-up game against Bangladesh on October 2.

The warm-up matches began on Friday with Sri Lanka suffering a seven-wicket defeat at the hands of Bangladesh here, while New Zealand defeated Pakistan in a high-scoring contest in Hyderabad.

All 10 teams will get to play two warm-up matches each before the group stage of the 50-over World Cup which gets underway in Ahmedabad on October 5.

The warm-up matches are being played at three venues Guwahati, Thiruvananthapuram and Hyderabad.

(With inputs from Agencies)