Soon after the conclusion of the IPL 2023 season, India’s star players will travel to UK to face Australia in the World Test Championship (WTC) final.

While the BCCI announced Team India’s 15-member squad for the WTC final on Tuesday (April 25), the board didn’t mention the standby players in its media release.

Now, a report published in TOI claims that Sarfaraz Khan, Ishan Kishan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Mukesh Kumar and Navdeep Saini are the standby players for the marquee WTC final.

While Sarfaraz and Gaikwad are specialist batters, Saini and Kumar are pace-bowling options. On the other hand, Kishan is a wicketkeeper-batter.

As per the report, the Indian team might play a multi-day warm-up match ahead of the WTC final and players not featuring in the IPL playoffs will depart for UK in advance.

Talking about India’s WTC squad, veteran batter Ajinkya Rahane, who has taken the cricketing world by storm with his dazzling exploits in the ongoing IPL for CSK, was a notable inclusion as Shreyas Iyer’s back injury opened a middle-order slot.

According to TOI, inputs from CSK skipper MS Dhoni was taken by the Indian team management and the selection committee before Rahane was recalled to the Test side.

The squad also sees the back of KL Rahul, who was dropped from the last two Tests of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia earlier this year.

Seam-bowling all-rounder Shardul Thakur have made the cut to the team which will be led by Rohit Sharma. KS Bharat continues to be the designated wicketkeeper in the squad in the absence of injured Rishabh Pant.

The World Test Championship final is slated to be held at the Oval in London from June 7-11.

India's Squad for WTC Final:

Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, KL Rahul, KS Bharat (WK), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Akshar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Mohammad Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat.