Mumbai: India’s bowling duo Yuzvendra Chahal and Avesh Khan left to link up with the first batch of the Men in Blue squad in New York ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup starting from June 1 onwards.
The World Cup-bound star spinner Chahal, who featured for Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the recently concluded IPL 2024, enjoyed an impressive campaign in which he bagged 18 wickets. Meanwhile, pacer Avesh Khan will be with India as a reserve player.
At the Mumbai airport, pacer Avesh was seen talking to another reserve player Rinku Singh on video call.
Earlier on Sunday, the first batch of Indian players including skipper Rohit Sharma, pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah and number-one-ranked T20I batter Suryakumar Yadav left for the United States.
At the Mumbai airport, besides skipper Rohit, Bumrah and Suryakumar, head coach Rahul Dravid, batting coach Vikram Rathour, batter Shubman Gill, all-rounders Ravindra Jadeja and Shivam Dube, pacers Mohammed Siraj, Arshdeep Singh, Khaleel Ahmed, spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel were also captured at the airport.
Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson who on Friday ended their Indian Premier League (IPL) campaign with Rajasthan Royals (RR) after a loss to Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) batter Rinku Singh and star batter Virat Kohli, whose team Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) lost to RR in the eliminator on Friday, have not joined the team yet.
India will start their T20 World Cup campaign on June 5 against Ireland at the newly constructed Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York.
Meanwhile, the most-awaited blockbuster clash between India and Pakistan will take place on June 9. They will later play tournament co-hosts USA (June 12) and Canada (June 15) to wrap up their Group A matches. In the tournament, India will be aiming to end their ICC trophy drought, having last won the ICC Champions Trophy in 2013. Since then, India has reached the 50-over World Cup final in 2023, semifinal in 2015 and 2019, the title clash of the ICC World Test Championship in 2021 and 2023, T20 WC final in 2014, semifinals in 2016 and 2022 but failed to secure a big ICC trophy.
India will be aiming to win their first T20 WC title ever since they won the inaugural edition of the tournament back in 2007 in South Africa. In the last edition held in Australia in 2022, India lost to England by 10 wickets in the semifinals. India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Hardik Pandya (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. (ANI)
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