2023 Men’s ODI World Cup – all teams will have different captains from 2019

In what will be a first if nothing changes in the coming months, no captain from the previous edition of the Men’s ODI World Cup will captain a team at the 2023 Men’s ODI World Cup in India later this year.

There have been retirements and changes at the top in the intervening period, and Kane Williamson is likely to miss the 2023 event following the knee injury he sustained in the IPL. New Zealand were the only team to have the same captaincy as the previous edition – Williamson was named Player of the Tournament in 2019 after leading New Zealand to the final and scoring 578 runs in nine innings.

While New Zealand have yet to name a replacement, Tom Latham, who has managed the side on a number of occasions in Williamson’s absence, is likely to take the lead. As such, it is possible that some of the men currently leading their teams will not be in position by the time the World Cup comes around.

Among the other teams that qualified directly: Gulbadin Naib is still there, but Afghanistan has been led by Hashmatullah Shahidi for some time; Australia is now led by Pat Cummins, and Aaron Finch has retired from international cricket; Bangladesh has Tamim Iqbal in place of Mashrafe Mortaza, who has retired; Eoin Morgan retired from international cricket last year after seven and a half years as white ball captain, including the 2019 World Cup trophy – Jos Buttler now in charge; Rohit Sharma is India’s captain of all formats, having taken over the position of ODIs after Virat Kohli was ousted from the position at the end of 2021; Babar Azam has been the captain of Pakistan in ODIs since May 2020, having replaced Sarfaraz Ahmed.

Sri Lanka and the West Indies, who last competed in the main event with ten teams, will have to play the qualifiers this year. But there are changes there too. Sri Lanka has Dasun Shanaka in charge, rather than Dimuth Karunaratne, while the West Indies are now led by Shai Hope – Kieron Pollard and Nicholas Pooran had led them after Jason Holder lost the top job after a poor 2019 World Cup.

South Africa has not yet qualified for the main draw either – Ireland can still overtake them if they win all three matches against Bangladesh in the upcoming series and improve their net run rate from -0.382 to -0.076 or better. South Africa is now led by Temba Bavuma, with Faf du Plessis currently out of the picture.