Korea to Face Australia in WBC Opener in March

Korea will face Australia in the opening game of the World Baseball Classic, which returns with an expanded schedule in March after being postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic in 2021.

This year's WBC has been expanded from 16 to 20 teams with qualifying events to be held in different venues in Japan, Taiwan and the U.S. Four groups consisting of five countries play in a round-robin format, with the top two from each group advancing to the next round.

Korea, led by manager Lee Kang-chul, is grouped with Australia, China, the Czech Republic and Japan. Korea will have its WBC opener against Australia in Japan on March 9, and then face three other countries in the following days.

Since the quadrennial tournament's inauguration in 2006, Korea's best performance so far is its second-place finish in 2009. It was eliminated in the first round of the tournament in 2013 and 2017.