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The star Australian batter Usman Khawaja, who miss the flight to India for the upcoming Border Gavaskar Trophy, has been belatedly granted visa as he will be flying to India on February 2 (Thursday) for the four-match Test series which is slated to be played from February 9. It was learnt that the visa application of Khawaja was forwarded to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in New Delhi. It needed some time for the MEA to issue clearances to Khawaja and the Indian High Commission in Canberra got a message from New Delhi. It was immediately relayed to the Indian Consulate in Melbourne who promptly thereafter issued his visa.
Khawaja will join the Australian squad who along with their support staff left for the team's training base in Bengaluru on two separate flights on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Khawaja will now board the flight from Melbourne to Bengaluru on Thursday and could attend the team's training session on Friday.
Upon being stranded Down Under, the left-handed batter had posted a popular internet meme with the caption: "Me waiting for my Indian Visa like… #stranded #dontleaveme #standard #anytimenow."
He was named Australia's Test Player of the Year on Monday, an award named after the legendary Shane Warne.
Australia will have a four-day training camp on the outskirts of Bengaluru before moving to Nagpur for the first Test beginning February 9. The other venues are Delhi, Dharamsala and Ahmedabad.
This is not the first time Khawaja has faced difficulties while traveling to India. In 2011, he needed a special intervention to participate in T20 Champions League.
Cricket fans around the world are licking their lips in anticipation of watching India's red-ball series against Australia. The four-match Test series between India and Australia kicks off on February 09 with the first game scheduled to be played at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur.
The upcoming Border-Gavaskar series will be extremely crucial for India as they want to make one final push to qualify for the World Test Championship (WTC) final. Rohit Sharma's men are currently second on the WTC standings while the Baggy Greens are at the summit.
Border Gavaskar Trophy 2023 schedule:
IND vs AUS, 1st Test Match at Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Nagpur - February 9-13
IND vs AUS, 2nd Test Match at Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi - February 17-21
IND vs AUS, 3rd Test Match at Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, Dharamsala - March 1-5
IND vs AUS, 4th Test Match at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad - March 9-13
India’s squad for the first two Tests vs Australia: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul (vc), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KS Bharat (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Suryakumar Yadav.
Australia Test squad for India tour: Pat Cummins (capt), Ashton Agar, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Lance Morris, Todd Murphy, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner.
