7 Indian players including Virat Kohli, Ravi Ashwin leave for UK ahead of ICC WTC final

Published at :May 22, 2023 at 11:16 PM

Modified at :May 22, 2023 at 11:16 PM

The players who are involved in IPL 2023 playoffs will travel according to their team's fortunes.

The first batch of the Indian team consisting of 11 members - seven squad members, a reserve, and three support bowlers - will reportedly leave for London on May 23, Tuesday prepare for the upcoming ICC World Test Championship final (ICC WTC 2023) to be played at the Oval from June 7-11, 2023.

India will be playing in their second consecutive WTC final, this time facing off against Australia in the lookout for their first ICC trophy since the 2013 Champions Trophy victory under MS Dhoni.

Since then India have reached the final of the 2014 T20 World Cup and the semi-finals of the 2015 ODI World Cup, the 2016 T20 World Cup, and the 2019 ODI World Cup. In the WTC 2021 final, India were bested by New Zealand in Southampton.

Recently, India named their ICC WTC final 2023 squad which is as below:

Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, K L Rahul, KS Bharat (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat.

Virat Kohli, Ravi Ashwin among seven players to fly to the UK

Sportstar reported that 11 cricketers - seven squad members, a reserve, and three support bowlers - along with India’s men’s cricket team’s support staff will leave for England in the wee hours of Tuesday to commence the preparation for the World Test Championship final.

The seven squad members include Virat Kohli, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, and Jaydev Unadkat. Understandably, all these cricketers, barring Unadkat, are from the six franchises whose Indian Premier League (IPL) campaign ended in the league stage.

The young pacer Mukesh Kumar, who is a reserve, will also depart with the initial group. Three other pacers, Aniket Choudhary, Akash Deep, and Yarra Prithviraj, who have been chosen by the national selection panel in collaboration with the team management as net bowlers, will join him.

Later this week, Cheteshwar Pujara, who is competing in the County Championship, will join the preparations.