India will start the 2022 Women’s World Cup with a match against Pakistan on March 6 next year as the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced the schedule for the tournament on Wednesday. The World Cup is being hosted by New Zealand this year and the hosts will face the West Indies in the first match on March 4, 2022 at the Bay Oval in Tauranga.

Defending champions England will then take on Australia the following day at Seddon Park in Hamilton.

A total of eight teams will compete in 31 matches will be staged across 31 days.

The ICC said that Australia, England, South Africa and India qualified for the event on the basis of their position in ICC Women’s Championship 2017-20 while New Zealand automatically qualified as they were hosts.

The tournament will initially played in a league format with all eight teams playing each other once. The top four teams will then qualfy for the semi-finals.

The first semi-final of the World Cup will be played at The Basin Reserve in Wellington on March 30 while The Hagley Oval will staged the second semi-final on March 31.

The final of the tournament will be played on April 3. Both the semi-finals and the finals will have a reserve day in place as per ICC.