Kohli, Ashwin, Siraj among seven players to leave for England on Tuesday for WTC final: Report

With the group stage of IPL 2023 coming to an end on Sunday, players like talismanic batter Virat Kohli, ace off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and fast bowler Mohammed Siraj will be among the seven players to leave for England on Tuesday ahead of the World Test Championship (WTC) final against Australia set to happen from June 7–11 at The Oval in London.

Indian stars Kohli, Ashwin, and Siraj Set for England departure

A report in Sportstar says in all eleven cricketers, comprising seven squad members, a reserve and three support bowlers, along with the support staff will leave for England in the early hours of Tuesday. It added that apart from Kohli, Ashwin and Siraj, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Umesh Yadav and Jaydev Unadkat will be leaving for England too.

Injury update

The report added that both Unadkat and Umesh, who were nursing shoulder and hamstring injuries during IPL 2023, had been passed fit by experts at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru.

"Understandably, all these cricketers, barring Unadkat, are from the six franchises whose Indian Premier League (IPL) campaign ended in the league stage. Unadkat had been replaced by the Lucknow Super Giants after injuring himself in the nets," it added.

Net bowlers revealed

The report also said that Mukesh Kumar, the promising pacer who is among the reserves and played for Delhi Capitals in IPL 2023 alongside Axar, will also travel to England as part of the first batch, with head coach Rahul Dravid leading the preparation phase as captain Rohit Sharma will be leading Mumbai Indians in the IPL 2023 Playoffs.

"He will be joined by three more pacers—Aniket Choudhary, Akash Deep, and Yarra Prithviraj—who have been selected as net bowlers by the national selection panel in consultation with the team management. Cheteshwar Pujara, who is participating in the County Championship, will join the preparations later this week," it added.

Remaining squad to depart night after IPL

Apart from Rohit, Ishan Kishan, Shubman Gill, Mohammad Shami, K.S. Bharat, and Ajinkya Rahane are also participating in the IPL 2023 playoffs. The report further said the remaining members of the 15-member squad along with reserves Suryakumar Yadav and Ruturaj Gaikwad are expected to leave for London on May 29, the night after the IPL final is held at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on May 28.

India, who finished runners-up in the inaugural edition of the World Test Championship final at Southampton in 2021 after an eight-wicket loss to New Zealand, are aiming to win a'major ICC men's title in almost ten years.