‘Ticket pakka mil jayegi’ – Fans react as Virender Sehwag urges Indian Cricket Board to print ‘Bharat’ instead of ‘India’ on World Cup jerseys

Former India opener Virender Sehwag made headlines yet again. Amidst speculations of renaming the country as ‘Bharat’ from ‘India’, the explosive batter made a request to the Indian Cricket Board via Twitter. He wrote, “I have always believed a name should be one which instils pride in us. We are Bhartiyas, India is a name given by the British & it has been long overdue to get our original name ‘Bharat’ back officially. I urge the Indian Cricket Board and Jay Shah to ensure that this World Cup our players have Bharat on our chest.”

“In the 1996 World Cup, Netherlands came to play in the World Cup in Bharat as Holland. In 2003 when we met them, they were the Netherlands & continue to be so. Burma have changed the name given by the British back to Myanmar. And many others have gone back to their original name,” he further added.

Team India announced their squad for ODI World Cup 2023

An important update in the lead-up to the ODI World Cup 2023 has been the squad announcement by the host nation, India on September 5, Tuesday. The selectors announced a 15-member squad that only saw two changes from India’s squad for the Asia Cup 2023. Firstly, young batter Tilak Varma was snubbed. Secondly, Sanju Samson, who was selected as a travelling reserve for the continental competition has been snubbed from the team for the ODI World Cup 2023.

The ODI World Cup 2023 will be hosted by India between October 5 and November 19. The opening game will be played between England and New Zealand which is a rematch of the previous edition’s final. India, on the other hand, will play a mini-ODI series against Australia before the World Cup. Interestingly, India will open their World Cup campaign against Australia on October 8.

Here’s the India squad for ODI World Cup 2023: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj and Kuldeep Yadav.

Here’s how fans reacted: