Home
Many of Team India's top players are currently deep in their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 commitments but for the 15 players selected in the team for the World Test Championship (WTC) final, the mega battle of five days will be at the back of the mind of the players.
Meanwhile, a recent report circulating in the media suggests that the squad will leave for the WTC Final, to be hosted at The Oval in England, in three separate batches.
Team India's departure schedule for WTC Final
The first group will leave on May 23, as soon as the league stage of the IPL comes to an end. The second batch will depart after the playoffs, to be held on May 23 and 24, while the final batch will go on May 30, after the final to be held on Sunday, May 28.
Ahead of the ultimate battle, the BCCI are in talks with a team in the UK where they are planning to organise a practice match for Team India. The WTC final against Australia will go on from from June 7 to 12.
India's bulging injury list
The Rohit Sharma-led side will be without many of their Test regulars, like Jasprit Bumrah, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant. This will be the second consecutive miss in the WTC final for KL Rahul, while Bumrah, rehabilitating from his surgery, and Pant, recuperating from his car accident in December 2022, are forced to skip a chance to help India fight for the trophy a second consecutive time.
Rahul will be replaced by Ishan Kishan in the squad. The Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) skipper got injured during IPL 2023 clash against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and was ruled out for the season.
Kishan is yet to make his Test debut. The southpaw has scored 2,985 runs in first-class format from 82 innings at an average of 38.76 including six centuries and 16 half-centuries. He has been picked up as KS Bharat's backup in the squad as a wicketkeeper-batter.
At the same time, the BCCI said that Jaydev Unadkat and Umesh Yadav have also suffered injuries and are undergoing rehabilitation. Hence, they are still in the WTC final squad.
India’s WTC final squad: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, KS Bharat (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Ishan Kishan (wk)
Australia's WTC final squad: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Todd Murphy, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, David Warner
MORE ON SPORTS TAK
Ricky Ponting warns Australia of Kohli's threat going into WTC final, says ‘Virat will be..'
‘Rohit should take a break before WTC final..’: Former West Indies' star batter amid Hitman's continuous struggle with bat
