Credit: Instagram
The IPL 2023 is approaching its final stages as the defending champions Gujarat Titans, Chennai Super Kings, Lucknow Super Giants, and Mumbai Indians are gearing up for the playoffs while the Indian players from the rest of the franchises will leave for England in batches for the highly-anticipated World Test Championship Final against Australia. Among the first batch of players, DC and KKR all-rounders Axar Patel and Shardul Thakur were spotted at the airport in the wee hours on Tuesday.
The WTC Final 2023 will be played between India and Australia at the Oval, London from June 7 to 11. The competition winners will be awarded $1.6 million, while the runners-up will receive $800,000. On Monday, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary, Jay Shah announced sportswear giants, Adidas as the Men in Blue's new kit sponsor.
Team India head coach Rahul Dravid accompanied Axar Patel and Shardul Thakur while net bowlers Akash Deep and Pulkit Narang are also part of the first batch. Recently, a video has gone viral on social media, where Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, and Rahul Dravid were spotted at an airport leaving for London in new sponsor's kits.
Watch the video here:
Apart from this, KKR and India all-rounder Shardul Thakur also took to his Instagram handle and posted a picture of himself in the same outfit and captioned it, "Outbound."
Talking about the IPL 2023, Delhi Capitals finished at the ninth spot in the points table with just five wins in 14 matches while the Knight Riders managed the seventh spot with six wins in 14 games. CSK and GT will square off against each other in Qualifier 1 on Tuesday at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
On the other hand, five-time champions Mumbai Indians and Lucknow Super Giants will face off in the Eliminator on Wednesday, at the Chepauk stadium as the winners will face the losers of Qualifier 1 in the second qualifiers.