Ahead of the upcoming edition of ODI World Cup 2023, former South African cricketer AB de Villiers named his four semi-finalists for the marquee ICC tournament. As per the 39-year-old, hosts India, five-time World Cup winners Australia and defending champions England will make it to the semi-finals and the fourth team that he picked is his own country, South Africa. ODI World Cup 2023 season opener will be played between England and New Zealand on October 5 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. In what comes as a major boost to England's chances of lifting the trophy yet again, their World Cup hero Ben Stokes has reversed his ODI retirement for the tournament.
ODI World Cup 2023 will be a golden chance for the Indian team to end their ICC title drought as this time the entire tournament will be played in India only. Back in 2011, Team India were the hosts when they lifted the World Cup trophy, under the captaincy of MS Dhoni. However, being the hosts also puts added pressure on the team.
During a Q&A session on his YouTube channel, De Villiers was asked to pick ODI World Cup 2023 four semifinalists, to which he replied, "Definitely, India. I think they will go on to win it over there again. It's going to be a fairytale World Cup. India, England, and Australia got to go with the big three. Then I want to - go with South Africa, even though Pakistan has a really good chance as well. So the fourth team will be South Africa."
"I've gone with three non-sub-continent teams there, which is very risky. But I am going to stick to it because I think the wickets will be good. I don't think the World Cup is going to see bad wickets during the duration of the tournament," he added.
As per De Villiers, England and India will make it to the ODI World Cup 2023 finals.
"England and India in the final. If they can find each other in that final, I think that will be fantastic, even though I really want my South African boys to be there."
England reached the final of World Cup in 1979, 1987 and 1992 but won the trophy in 2019 by defeating New Zealand in Wales. In 2022, England also won the T20 World Cup title.