Last week, BCCI announced Team India’s squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup 2022, slated to be held in Australia from October 16 to November 13.
The main squad features 15 players with Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul to perform the roles of captain and vice-captain, respectively. The selectors have also named four players in the standby list.
For the showpiece ICC tournament, the Indian team will reportedly travel to Australia a week prior to their proposed schedule with the objective to get additional match practice in those conditions.
According to a report published in The Indian Express, the BCCI has decided to send the entire squad, including net bowlers and standby players, after the conclusion of the third T20I against South Africa in Indore on October 4.
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As per the report, the squad will fly to Australia on October 5 and the Indian board is planning at least three warm-up games there. Moreover, the Men in Blue are due to play two warm-up matches organised by the ICC against New Zealand and Australia on October 17 and October 18, respectively.
“We are in talks with a few teams who will play games with us besides warm-up games kept by ICC. The entire T20 World Cup squad will travel to Australia on October 5 along with Dravid and his support staff. The Indian team which will play ODIs here against South Africa will be a second-string side coached by VVS Laxman,” The Indian Express quoted a BCCI official as saying.
Before departing for Australia, India are due to play three T20Is against Australia followed by six white-ball games (three ODIs and three T20Is) versus South Africa.
Veteran opener Shikhar Dhawan will reportedly lead the second-string Indian team in the ODIs against South Africa while the support staff of the India ‘A’ team will be asked to work with the senior team.
India will begin their T20 World Cup 2022 campaign against arch-rivals Pakistan at Melbourne Cricket Ground on October 23.
India’s squad for T20 World Cup 2022: Rohit Sharma (C), KL Rahul (VC), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, R Pant (WK), Dinesh Karthik (WK), Hardik Pandya, R. Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Akshar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh
Standby Players: Mohammad Shami, Deepak Chahar, Shreyas Iyer, Ravi Bishnoi
(The Indian Express inputs)
