Virat Kohli, R Ashwin among first batch of India players to depart for WTC Final

Senior India batter Virat Kohli will be among the first batch of cricketers to depart to London for the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final against Australia, scheduled to start on 7 June.

According to news agency PTI, Kohli will be leaving for London in the early hours of Tuesday along with his Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) teammate Mohammed Siraj.

RCB were knocked out of the Indian Premier League (IPL) following a six-wicket defeat to Gujarat Titans (GT) on Sunday.

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The report added that Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel and Shardul Thakur, whose teams were also knocked out in the IPL league stages, will also board the flight. They will be accompanied by the Team India support staff led by head coach Rahul Dravid.

“There will be two or three departures in total. The first batch leaves at 4.30 am tomorrow,” A BCCI source was quoted as saying by PTI.

Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan KS Bharat, Ajinkya Rahane and Mohammed Shami are some of the big names who will stay back in India for the IPL playoffs.

Cheteshwar Pujara, meanwhile, is currently playing English county cricket with Sussex.

While most of the Team India players are heading to the WTC Final after two months of IPL, there are only three Australians from the IPL who are bound to fly to the UK for the summit clash.

Former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting felt Aussies will be mentally prepared. “There are two ways to look at this. For someone like Virat, is he better off playing now and scoring runs at a consistent basis and have confidence going into a game rather than the Australians back home who haven’t been playing much cricket but will be mentally better prepared,” Ponting had opined.

India are looking to clinch their first major ICC trophy since the Champions Trophy in 2013. India had faced New Zealand in the final of WTC 2021, but succumbed to an eight-wicket defeat.

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