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The Indian team led by Rohit Sharma have flown to Australia ahead of the 2022 T20 World Cup Down Under in the early hours of Thursday. The Men in Blue, inaugural winners of the marquee tournament in 2007, will be hoping to get their hands on the trophy for a second time as they kick off their campaign with a clash against their bitter rivals Pakistan on October 23. The team will be playing two warm-up matches before the Super 12 stage.
India will face off against Australia and New Zealand on October 17 and 19 in warm-up matches respectively before their mega clash against Pakistan. The team left for the Australian shores in the early hours of Thursday with BCCI posting a group photo of the players and support staff before they embarked on the journey.
"Picture perfect. Let's do this #TeamIndia. @cricketworldcup, here we come," said BCCI in their tweet.
The Men in Blue were dealt a massive blow ahead of the T20 World Cup as pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah was ruled out of the tournament. The 28-year-old, who also missed out on the Asia Cup, made his return to the team for the Australia T20I series which India won 2-1. He, however, had to pull out of the South Africa series before the first match. It was later confirmed that the Mumbai Indians star will miss the competition in Australia.
Speaking after the South Africa T20I series, captain Rohit Sharma said that they will make a decision on who will replace Bumrah in Australia.
"Only 7,8 members of the squad have been to Australia, so we have organised a few practise games. We need to understand what combination we can play. Bumrah is out of the World Cup, so we need to find a bowler who has experience bowling in Australia. Not sure who that bowler is going to be, we will see once we travel to Australia, we'll find it out there," said Sharma.
According to reports, either Mohammed Shami or Deepak Chahar, who are among the reserves, will be replacing the pace spearhead for the tournament. The pacers duo are still in India and will play the upcoming ODI series against South Africa.
