After announcing the Indian squad for the ICC World Test Championship 2023 Final, reports regarding a list of stand-by players have surfaced. The BCCI revealed Team India’s 15-member squad for the WTC final on Tuesday (April 25), but the board didn’t include the standby players in its press release.
Now, a media report claims that Sarfar az Khan, Ishan Kishan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Mukesh Kumar and Navdeep Sain i are named as the standby players for the WTC final to be held at the Oval in London from June 7-11. Sarfaraz and Gaikwad are specialist batters, while Saini and Kumar are fast bowlers. On the other hand, Kishan is a wicketkeeper-batter.
As per the report published by the Times of India, the Indian team is set to play a multi-day warm-up match ahead of the WTC final. This fixture will include players, who are not part of the IPL playoffs and will travel to the UK in advance.
Now talking about the 15-man Indian squad, Mumbai batter Ajinkya Rahane’s inclusion was the biggest surprise for fans as the veteran batter was released from the BCCI central contract in March 2023. But Rahane since being out of the Indian squad was a major part of the Mumbai team during the 2022-23 domestic season where he led them to the Syed Mushtaq Ali title.
Then in the Ranji Trophy, he insisted on pushing to make the India comeback and ended the season with 634 runs in 11 innings which included two centuries at an average of 57.63. Rahane will now be taking the place of fellow Mumbai batter Suryakumar Yadav, who was a reserve batter during the recent Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia.
India's Squad for WTC Final:
Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, KL Rahul, KS Bharat (WK), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Akshar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Mohammad Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat.