WTC 2023 Final: Virat Kohli & six squad members to leave for London; Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat reported fit

WTC 2023 Final: Former Indian captain Virat Kohli will be among the first batch of players to leave for the World Test Championship final in London. The first batch of the squad includes 11 cricketers, seven of them are squad members, one is a reserve bowler and three are net bowlers that will travel to England next week.

According to PTI, the first batch of the squad will leave for the WTC final in the early hours of Tuesday. The seven squad members include – Virat Kohli, R Ashwin, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Umesh Yadav, and Jaydev Unadkat. Notably, the flight will also take the support staff led by head coach Rahul Dravid.

Notably, as reported by Sportstar, there will also be four more players accompanying the Indian squad members. Mukesh Kumar, who is a reserve bowler will be on the flight to London. Moreover, India will be taking pacers –  Aniket Choudhary, Akash Deep, and Yarra Prithviraj as net bowlers for the one-off Test against Australia.

Unadkat, Umesh declared fit

The same report of Sportstar adds that the duo of Jaydev Unadkat and Umesh Yadav have understood to be declared fit by the experts at the National Cricket Academy. Yadav suffered a hamstring injury and did not play for Kolkata Knight Riders since April 26. Meanwhile, Unadkat got injured ahead of Lucknow Super Giants’ clash against Royal Challengers Bangalore on May 1.

Notably, 7 members of the Indian team are currently taking part in IPL 2023. Cheteshwar Pujara is already in England and is playing the County Cricket. “There will be two or three departures in total. The first batch leaves at 4.30 am tomorrow,” said a BCCI source as quoted by PTI.

The Indian team will not be playing a warm-up game before the one-off Test match as the English County Championship is being held and England is under no obligation of hosting a warm-up fixture as this is an ICC event. “Also if we play against a select county XI, it will comprise mostly second team or development squad players, as first team players are not released during the championship. Playing against a weak opposition doesn’t help in quality practice,” a BCCI source told PTI on the condition of anonymity.

India’s squad for WTC final:

Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, KS Bharat (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Ishan Kishan (wk).

Standby players: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Mukesh Kumar, Suryakumar Yadav.

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