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SPORTS JUNE 02, 2023 | The Indian Eye 48

Focus shifts to India’s

preparation for WTC and Asia Cup

as IPL reaches its final stage

India’s Test squad WTC final:
OUR BUREAU
Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman
London/Chennai
Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli,
eam India on Thursday un- Ajinkya Rahane, K L Rahul, KS Bharat
veiled their training kit with (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra
Tnew sponsors Adidas as they Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur,
started their preparation for the ICC Mohammad Shami, Mohammed Siraj,
World Test Championship (WTC) Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat.
final against Australia next month in Australia’s squad for WTC final 2023:
England.
Earlier this week, the Board of Pat Cummins (Captain), Steve Smith,
Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) David Warner, Travis Head, Usman
secretary Jay Shah confirmed that Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Mat-
Adidas had been signed as the new thew Renshaw, Marcus Harris, Alex
kit sponsor for the Indian cricket Carey, Josh Inglis, Cameron Green,
team. Taking to their official Twitter Mitchell Marsh, Scott Boland, Josh Ha-
handle, BCCI revealed Team India’s zlewood, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Starc,
new training kit. The coaching staff, and Todd Murphy.
including head coach Rahul Dravid
and fast bowlers Shardul Thakur and
Umesh Yadav were pictured in the Akash Madhwal delivers
new kit. India will take on Australia great performance
at The Oval in the ICC World Test
Championship final from June 7 to 11. umbai Indians young
The No.1 and No.2 ranked sides bowler Akash Madhwal
in the ICC Test Team rankings will Mdelivered a brilliant spell
play each other in the marquee WTC against Lucknow Super Giants in
final at The Oval in England with the eliminator of the Indian Pre-
neither team enjoying a particularly mier League (IPL) 2023 match. He
good record at the venue. “Unveiling became an overnight sensation after
#TeamIndia’s new training kit Also, breaking many records at the MA
kickstarting our preparations for the Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
#WTCFinal,” BCCI said in a tweet. The talented medium pacer
Two of India’s most prolific bat- dismantled the opponent’s batting
ters Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer with his excellent bowling, picking
won’t be playing in the final with the five wickets and conceding only five
latter down with injury and the wick- Ishant Sharma celebrates the wicket of New Zealand’s Kane Williamson during runs. His victims were opener Prerak
etkeeper-batter still recovering from Mankad (2 runs), Ayush Badoni (1
a car accident earlier in the year. the fifth day of the World Test Championship final match between New Zealand and India in run), Nicholas Pooran (0), Ravi Bish-
India have three spin options June last year (ANI Photo) noi (3 runs) and Mohsin Khan (0).
in their squad, with experienced With this outstanding perfor-
off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin port on the batting side of things, a form recently can have a strong im- mance, Akash registered a record
and No.1 ranked all-rounder Ravin- strong trio even if Umesh Yadav and pact during the upcoming ICC World of bowling best figures in the IPL by
dra Jadeja joined in the 15-player left-armer Jaydev Unadkat join Jas- Test Championship final against an uncapped player. He surpassed
squad by left-armer tweaker Axar prit Bumrah as injury absentees. India. Warner broke a drought of Ankit Rajpoot’s record, who took
Patel. On the other hand, with Josh almost two years without a Test cen- five wickets conceding 14 runs play-
Despite numerous injuries Hazlewood priming for the one-off tury when he amassed a superb 200 ing for Punjab Kings.
hurting their lead-up, India boasts Test after recovering from Achilles against South Africa during the Box- The 29-year-old from Uttara-
fast-bowling depth, and could yet fit trouble, and expected to line up with ing Day Test in Melbourne last year khand has also featured himself in
three fast bowlers into the side. Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins, the and looked to be in reasonable touch the elite group of bowlers having
Mohammed Siraj and Moham- Australian attack at this point almost when scoring 516 runs from 14 IPL the best bowling returns in IPL, he
mad Shami could be joined by Shar- picks itself. matches with the Delhi Capitals in has fourth-best bowling figures with
dul Thakur, also known to bring sup- David Warner who returned to even more recent times. Continued on next page... >>

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