Kohli, Ashwin among 7 players to leave early for ICC World Test final

MUMBAI: Star batter Virat Kohli, spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and pacer Mohammed Siraj will be among the first batch of Indian players to leave early for the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final against Australia. The batch of seven players are likely to leave for London on Tuesday.

The World Test Championship between Australia and India will be played at The Oval in London between June 7-11.

"Seven players set to leave for England for ICC World Test Championship early along with head coach Rahul Dravid and support staff. These players are Virat Kohli, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur, Axar Patel and Jaydev Unadkat," a BCCI source told ANI.

Kohli was competing in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023, but his club, Royal Challengers Bangalore, were eliminated on Sunday. Virat's RCB teammate Mohammad Siraj and R Ashwin, Axar Patel, and all-rounder Shardul Thakur are in the same batch.

India head coach Rahul Dravid will also accompany the initial batch of Indian players. India captain Rohit Sharma, all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja, Ishan Kishan, Shubman Gill, Mohammad Shami, K S Bharat, and Ajinkya Rahane are busy being involved in the IPL 2023 playoffs and will depart for the WTC final later.

Test specialist Cheteshwar Pujara is currently in England playing County Championships cricket and will join the Indian squad in London once they arrive.

India WTC Squad: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, KS Bharat (wicket-keeper), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, and Ishan Kishan (wicket-keeper).

Additionally, the standby players for the squad are Ruturaj Gaikwad, Mukesh Kumar, and Suryakumar Yadav.