Sarfaraz Khan and Ishan Kishan among five standby players for WTC Final; Here's full details
Team India is all set to lock horns with Australia in the much-awaited final of the World Test Championship 2023. The final will take place at the Oval in London between June 7 and 11.
Australia was the first team to qualify, while India qualified after beating Australia 3-1 in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy at home. On Tuesday (April 25), the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced a 15-member squad for the WTC final.
The announced squad saw the return of veteran Ajinkya Rahane after a gap of 15 months. Shreyas Iyer and Rishabht Pant not part of the squad, so the Indian management backed the experienced Rahane. However, the board didn't mention the standby players.
As per the report by TOI, five players have been named as standby players for the all-important WTC final. Sarfaraz Khan, Ishan Kishan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Mukesh Kumar, and Navdeep Saini are those five standby players. Sarfaraz and Gaikwad are specialist batters, while Kishan is the backup keeper, and Mukesh and Saini are two seaming options.
The report further suggests that Team India will play a multi-day warm-up match ahead of the final. Selected players who will not feature in the IPL playoffs will fly to the UK earlier than the players who will be part of the team qualifying for the playoffs.
According to the report, before the inclusion of Rahane, the Indian management took some input from CSK skipper MS Dhoni. KL Rahul is also part of the team. He was dropped from the playing XI in the last two games of the BGT series.
Ravindra Jadeja, Ravi Ashwin, and Axar Patel are the three spin all-rounders in the team. Though, on the English conditions, all three might not play in the team. Shardul Thakur has also made his comeback in the squad.
Indian Squad for WTC: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, KL Rahul, KS Bharat (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Md. Shami, Md. Siraj, Umesh Yadav, and Jaydev Unadkat.