Follow UsVirat Kohli will be among the first batch of Indian players to leave for the United Kingdom for the World Test Championship final against Australia next month, the Press Trust of India reported on Monday (May 22). The final will be played at the Oval from June 7.
Kohli will be joined by Mohammed Siraj, R Ashwin, Axar Patel, Umesh Yadav, Shardul Thakur and Jaydev Unadkat. These seven players, along with the team's support staff led by Rahul Dravid, will leave for London in the early hours of Tuesday.
Mukesh Kumar, who is on the standby list, is also expected to leave on Tuesday. Aniket Choudhary, Akash Deep and Yarra Prithvi Raj are travelling as net bowlers. Meanwhile, Cheteshwar Pujara is already in England playing county cricket.
"There will be two or three departures in total. The first batch leaves at 4:30 AM tomorrow," said a BCCI source.
Royal Challengers Bangalore, on Sunday, lost their last league game against Gujarat Titans and were knocked out of the Indian Premier League 2023. Apart from RCB, Ashwin’s Rajasthan Royals, Axar’s Delhi Capitals and Thakur’s Kolkata Knight Riders are also out of the tournament.
Unadkat and Umesh missed the majority of the IPL 2023 due to respective injuries but are expected to recover before the WTC final. Unadkat’s Lucknow Super Giants have made it through to the playoffs but the franchise have already replaced him with Suryansh Shedge.
Meanwhile, the likes of Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan (both Mumbai Indians), Shubman Gill, Mohammad Shami, KS Bharat (all three Gujarat Titans) and Ajinkya Rahane (Chennai Super Kings) will be featuring in the playoffs. Ruturaj Gaikwad and Suryakumar Yadav, who are part of the reserves, will also travel later.