The Indian team for the World Test Championship (WTC 2023) final will reportedly depart in three batches for the United Kingdom.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is also arranging a practice match for the Rohit Sharma-led team before their trial by fire against Australia in the WTC final, which will be held at the Oval in London from 7-11 June.
Given the ongoing IPL 2023 season, the Indian team for the WTC final will depart in three batches, the first of which would depart immediately after the league phase of the IPL concludes.
Players whose teams will not make the playoffs will travel to the United Kingdom on May 23 to acclimatize to the conditions, Cricbuzz reported.
The second batch will fly out following the completion of the two playoff matches on May 23 and 24. Players whose teams do not advance to the IPL final are expected to be included in the second batch.
The final batch will depart for the United Kingdom on May 30, just a few days after the IPL 2023 season finale, which will be held at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on May 28.
Cheteshwar Pujara, R Ashwin, Akshar Patel, and Shardul Thakur are likely to be part of the first batch while Mukesh Kumar, who is part of the standby list of players will also leave for the UK straight after the completion of the IPL’s league phase.
Depending on how their respective teams do in the IPL playoffs, Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, KS Bharat, Ishan Kishan, Ravindra Jadeja, Suryakumar Yadav, and Ruturaj Gaikwad could leave in the second and third batches.
Umesh Yadav and Jaydev Unadkat are nursing injuries and their progress is being monitored by the BCCI.
Also, the report stated that the BCCI is also planning to organize a practice match for the Indian team to get back into the Test mode ahead of the WTC final.
(Cricbuzz report)
