Former Australian wicketkeeper-batter Adam Gilchrist has picked his four semi-finalists for the upcoming ICC World Cup 2023. Gilchrist has backed India, Pakistan, Australia, and England to make the last four.
The 51-year-old in his recent interaction with Press Trust of India (PTI) spoke about the Indian team and their recent Asia Cup 2023 title win. He said that the Indian team will be buoyant after their Asia Cup win.
"I think India and Pakistan could feature in the semi-finals, Australia and England are another two teams," Gilchrist told PTI.
Despite a recent series loss to South Africa, Gilchrist, a legendary figure in the sport, remains optimistic about Australia's performance in the tournament hosted by India. He views such setbacks as valuable learning experiences that can help the team refine their strategies and prepare for more significant challenges ahead.
"Australia will learn a lot from their efforts in South Africa when they come to India, they have got three games before the World Cup against India so they will have a bit more of a full strength squad there so that might tell us a bit about where they are at so its a bit hard who's gonna win it (World Cup) but I think there is probably four semi-finalists there," said Gilchrist.
It must be noted that Pakistan were knocked out of the ongoing Asia Cup 2023 after back-to-back losses against India and Sri Lanka in the Super 4 stage of the tournament.
Meanwhile, they will reach India on September 27 via Dubai. Pakistan will also play two warm-up games against New Zealand and Australia on September 29 and October 3.
Here is Pakistan's schedule for the ICC World Cup 2023:
October 6 - vs Netherlands in Hyderabad
October 10 - vs Sri Lanka in Hyderabad
October 14 - vs India in Ahmedabad
October 20 - vs Australia in Bengaluru
October 23 - vs Afghanistan in Chennai
October 27 - vs South Africa in Chennai
October 31 - vs Bangladesh in Kolkata
November 4 - vs New Zealand Bengaluru (Day match)
November 11 - vs England in Kolkata
The day matches which will start at 10:00am Pakistan Standard Time (PST) while all other matches will be day-night fixtures starting at 01:30pm (PST).
If Pakistan qualify for the semi-finals, they will play in Kolkata.
If India qualify for the semi-finals, they will play in Mumbai unless playing against Pakistan, in which case they will play in Kolkata.
