CHENAI: With the league stage of the Indian Premier League (IPL) over, the first batch of cricketers, coaching staff and net bowlers were set to travel to England on Tuesday for the final of the World Test Championship that is scheduled to be played at The Oval from June 7.
As many as nine of the 18-member squad, including reserves, whose teams did not qualify for the play-offs, along with the coaching staff and three net bowlers were scheduled to be part of the first batch that leave in the wee hours on Tuesday.
Virat Kohli, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Axar Patel and Mukesh Kumar were scheduled to leave with the coaching staff and the three net bowlers — Aniket Choudhary, Akash Deep and Yarra Prithviraj — on Wednesday. R Ashwin, it seems, will be joining the camp later this week.
While Akash was the leading pacer in the Ranji Trophy last year as he took 41 wickets, helping Bengal reach the final, Choudhary is a right-arm pacer from Rajasthan who took 30 wickets, Prithviraj is a left-arm pacer from Andhra. Cheteshwar Pujara is already in England, playing for Sussex in the second division county league.