Before beginning their campaign in the upcoming T20 World Cup, the Virat Kohli-led Team India will play a couple of warm-up games against England and Australia.
Although the Indian players have received sufficient exposure and have acclimatized to the conditions in the UAE after playing for their respective franchises in the ongoing season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), the warm-up matches will help them get their rhythm back together as a unit.
India will first take on England on October 18 before taking on Australia on October 20.
While the first warm-up game will begin at 19:30 IST, the second one will start at 15:30 IST. Both the matches, which will be held in Dubai, will broadcasted live on Star Sports.
Notably, all the eight teams, who have secured qualification for Round 2 of the showpiece event, will play warm-up matches ahead of the main competition.
While the qualifiers will get underway from October 17 in Oman, the main tournament will begin from October 23 in the UAE in which Australia will be up against South Africa.
Team India, led by Kohli, will open their campaign against arch-rivals Pakistan on October 24 in Dubai.
The Men In Blue, placed in the second group, will next face New Zealand on October 31 at the same venue before facing Afghanistan on November 3 in Abu Dhabi.
India will then take on the two of the four qualifiers on November 5 and 8 in Dubai.
The two semifinals will be held on November 10 and November 11 with the final to be played on November 14.
The teams vying to make the Super 12 include hosts Oman, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, PNG, Netherlands, Ireland, Namibia and Scotland.
Significantly, all the tickets for the upcoming T20 World Cup’s India versus Pakistan contest was completely sold out just hours after the sale was launched on the Platinumlist website last week.
As soon as the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced that the sale was on, the website was flooded with thousands of cricket enthusiasts who logged on to book the seats.
Currently, the Platinumlist website is showing the seats in all sections — including the General, General East, Premium, Pavilion East, and Platinum — as “unavailable” for the match.
In the showpiece event, Bangladesh, Ireland and 2014 winners Sri Lanka will be competing alongside Namibia, Netherlands, Oman, Papua New Guinea, and Scotland for a place in the Super 12 stage which features Afghanistan, Australia, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, and West Indies.
The Super 12 groups:
Group 1: West Indies, England, Australia, South Africa & 2 Qualifiers
Group 2: India, Pakistan, New Zealand, Afghanistan & 2 Qualifiers