The International Cricket Council (ICC) announced the list of match officials who will officiate in the much-awaited World Test Championship (WTC) final between India and Australia at the Oval starting June 7.
On-field umpires and their experience
The on-field umpires for the final are New Zealand's Chris Gaffaney and England's Richard Illingworth. Gaffaney was recently in India for Indian Premier League (IPL). Gaffaney and Illingworth are seasoned umpire in the longest format of the game and are members of Emirates ICC Elite Panel of Umpires. So far Gaffaney and Illingworth have officiated in 48 and 63 Tests respectively.
TV umpire and fourth umpire
The third umpire is England's Richard Kettleborough whereas the fourth umpire is Sri Lanka's Kumar Dharmasena. The Sri Lankan also officiated in the nerve-wracking ODI World Cup 2019 final which England won by the barest of margins. Also, Kettleborough had acted as TV umpire in the inaugural WTC final between India and New Zealand.
Apart from the list of umpires, West Indies’ Richie Richardson has been appointed as the match referee.
India, Australia WTC squads
Earlier, on March 28, ICC also announced the 15-member squads of both the teams. These squads are final. However, if any of the team wishes to make any changes due to an injury or some other reason, the change will be approved by ICC technical committee.
All Australian players are in England preparing for their first WTC final. On the other hand, the Indian contingent is missing three players who are part of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 final that got postponed to the reserve day due to heavy rain in Ahmedabad. Gujarat Titans’ (GT) Shubman Gill, Mohammed Shami and Chennai Super Kings’ (CSK) Ajinkya Rahane are likely to fly to England the day after IPL 2023 final.
Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis (wk), Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, David Warner
Standby players: Mitch Marsh, Matthew Renshaw
India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), 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)
Standby players: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Mukesh Kumar, Suryakumar Yadav
MORE ON SPORTS TAK
'Off to England': Yashasvi Jaiswal departs for U.K. with captain Rohit Sharma, shares picture with Team India skipper
ICC announces India and Australia's 15-member squads for WTC final, no changes despite fitness concerns surrounding pacers
