The Indian team reached Guwahati on September 28, 2023, for their warm-up games of the ICC World Cup 2023. India is slated to play England at Barsapara Stadium on September 30 and then the Netherlands on October 3 in Thiruvananthapuram.
The Men in Blue side traveled from Rajkot to Guwahati, where they finished the third and final ODI against Australia.
And for a surprise, off-spinner R Ashwin, who was part of the three-ODI squad for the Australia series, has traveled with the Indian team to Guwahati. However, the cricketer he had replaced, Akshar Patel, was nowhere to be seen.
Akshar Patel had suffered a quad injury during the Asia Cup 2023 match against Bangladesh and hence India had recalled R Ashwin for Australia ODIs, along with Washington Sundar.
Ashwin presented a strong case to be recalled into the ODI team with a dominating performance in the second ODI. He wasn't released after the third ODI and has traveled to Guwahati with the team.
But there has been no official statement from the BCCI yet. September 28, 2023, Thursday is the deadline to submit the final squads for all the teams. And Ashwin traveling with the team despite not being an official member of the team does hint that he has been added to the World Cup squad.
It remains to be seen if India makes a change to their World Cup squad or not. Should Akshar be dropped, it will be the second time when he will lose his spot after being named in a World Cup team. In 2021, Shardul Thakur replaced Akshar for the T20 World Cup before the cutoff date to name the final squad.
He was part of the 2015 World Cup but didn't get to play a game. He wasn't in contention to be named in the 2019 World Cup team.
