After securing a hard-fought victory against Australia, the Indian team will be eyeing their second consecutive victory in the World Cup campaign with Afghanistan looking to be a major hurdle.
The Indian team continued to do wonders since the arrival of head coach Craig Fulton as they remained unbeaten throughout the event and defeated Japan by 5-1 in the 19th Asian Games.
Before this, the Indian team had registered a 6-2 loss to South Korea, the team which had clinched the last six titles in the category, in the semifinals. Following this, a bronze medal match with Vietnam was set.
As the Cricket tournament commenced on October 5, L Eswar Rao has crafted the World Cup trophy on a turmeric, as a tribute to the Indian team. It took two days to complete the trophy from bottom to top.
The Indian quartet of Anas Muhammed Yahiya, Amoj Jacob, Muhammed Ajmal Variyathodi and Rajesh Ramesh broke the national record to clinch India's 18th gold in the Asian Games in the men's 4x400m relay on Wednesday.
Even though the Indian team is entering on the back of a hot run in the ODI format, being the host will likely bring the much-needed luck factor to them as well.
In the past 13 years, the host nation has lifted the World Cup and it all started in 2011 when the Indian team led by MS Dhoni b
Following the loss, the head coach took to X (formerly Twitter) to appreciate his "Warriors" for fighting it out as they were a new team that had never played together before but still performed well against quality opponents.
Ruturaj Gaikwad has been appointed as the captain of the Indian team in the Asian Games while Yashasvi Jaiswal who currently is in red-hot form and playing in the first Test against West Indies, found a place in the squad.