A social media post that purportedly displays a legendary Indian cricketer requesting all good folks not to call him for match-day tickets has been doing the rounds for a while now. And as if on cue, a clutch of influencers and cricket scribes too have been putting out earnest appeals in as many words, requesting people to stay at home and watch on television, not bug them for tickets. And if you didn’t know before this, now you do. The cricket World Cup, the game’s quadrennial shingle, in its glorious fifth decade is here in India.

The perfunctory introductions done and dusted, it’s time to announce the 2023 ICC Men’s World Cup that gets underway today (Thursday) in Ahmedabad. Spread-eagled over 10 teams, 48 games and a duration of nearly a month and a half, this is Indian cricket’s moment to scream, “It’s coming home”, but with much more expectation as well as confidence than the Three Lions faithful ever had in their band of football boys since 1966.

Cricket in the post-Covid era has seen teams prepare for two T20 World Cups, and play relatively fewer 50-over matches going into this tournament as compared to 2019. Purists might still bemoan the surge of the shortest format of white-ball cricket and fear a spillover effect on the 50-over game, but it is important to understand the new reality.

Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad: The tournament starts on Thursday with a cracker, a repeat of the 2019 World Cup final in which defending champions England take on New Zealand. X:@ICC

Previous ODI World Cups have had their measure of rule tweaks as well as new phenomenon that helped bind the interest of the cricket crazy ensemble. The 2011 edition that was hosted here in the subcontinent saw teams racking their brains over three powerplays per innings that included both a batting as well as a bowling powerplay. Offspinners were invaluable currency then and reverse swing, especially in the second innings, was an added boost to the bowling side.

Cut to 2015, and just four fielders outside the 30-yard circle meant the thunderbats would take maximum advantage of the introduction of two new balls that just all but negated reverse swing. With a prominent few “doosra” offies pulled up by the ICC for suspect bowling actions, it became the precursor for wrist spinners who have headlined white-ball cricket ever since. Year 2019 saw heavy hitting increase exponentially as England led the charge with a bevy of phenomenal power hitters (Buttler, Bairstow, Stokes, Moeen, Livingstone, Brook).

Year 2023 though comes with a largely unnoticed tweak that is sure to lure the big bats into notions of making merry. Once termed the bane of ODI cricket, the 30-over phase from overs 11 – 40 now present a greater challenge for bowling sides to fight and stay in the game. With just 4 fielders outside the circle, this phase presents more four and six hitting opportunities for teams thriving on an excess of fearless shot makers.

The tournament though will see a lot of T20 thinking being fused in as teams will try to garner maximum impact from the word go. The pick of the lot, in this case hosts India and defending champions England will look to power their way to formidable totals in every match, using a basic metric that sees them try and double their score in the first 30 overs through the final 20, or at least, get within touching distance.

The multiple venues and varied conditions present newer challenges to teams as they will try to get acclimatized fast enough; from the pace and carry of the Eden to the turners in Chennai, or even the “it’s slow and gripping here in Lucknow”.

While most batsmen of some repute have played at almost all venues across the country courtesy the IPL, this will be a different ballgame, as the slam-bang superstars try a slightly more nuanced and longer version of their power game, that at the outset looks difficult to sustain over so many matches.

A T20 game gives you the spectacle of a multitude of lap shots, scoops, reverse hoicks, to name just a few. But how it all comes off in the face of bowlers who will resort to the scrambled seam, cutters, slower bouncers, and maybe occasionally, the test match length, will provide enough fodder for the purists who love the perfect battle between leather and willow.

The tournament starts with a cracker later this afternoon in what is a repeat of the 2019 World Cup final, defending champions England up against New Zealand in Ahmedabad. Every nation will be seeking their turn for a shot at glory, but in the immediate build-up to the tournament now, it is hosts India and defending champions England, who seem to be on point for an epic final showdown. History and repute do put Australia and Pakistan on course to liven up proceedings and make a dash for the semi-finals, but Bangladesh and Afghanistan who know a good scrap or two, lie in wait, and could prove to be huge roadblocks. Like every ICC tournament, world cricket waits for South Africa to re-emerge and make a fist of it. It’s the low-key Kiwis though, who seem to have everything in their arsenal so far, and could possibly tick all boxes to make it to the summit showdown in November.

Sanjeeb Mukherjea is a sports television personality. An award-winning anchor-journalist, Mukherjea now doubles up as host and commentator for major sports broadcasting networks in India.