“Hello guys, welcome back”: Jadeja, Rahane, Gill, Surya back hit practice ahead of WTC final

London [UK], June 2 (ANI): The Indian Test squad for the World Test Championship (WTC) final against Australia have hit full practice mode ahead of the marquee clash at the iconic Oval on June 7.

The official Twitter handle of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) shared a few pictures of the Indian stars Ravindra Jadeja, Ajinkya Rahane, Shubman Gill and Suryakumar Yadav going through their paces before the big encounter.
The BCCI captioned its post as “The wait is over. Hello guys, welcome back!”

While the WTC final has been scheduled from June 7-11 at the Oval in London, June 12 has been set as a reserve day in the event of rain.

Several of India’s Test stars will mark their return to international cricket after a long break as they were playing in the IPL back home. A few of India’s regulars in the red-ball format showcased their talent and skills in the shortest format and will go into the WTC final on the back of some incredible performance in the cash-rich, domestic T20 league.

Shubman Gill, who opens for the country in the longest format, hit a purple patch in the IPL and was crowned with the “Orange Cap” after aggregating the most runs in the tournament. Gill ended the IPL 2023 campaign with 890 runs in 17 matches, scoring at an average of 59.33 and a strike rate of 157.80. He has also smashed three hundreds in the season.

Surya also had a great IPL 2023 season, amassing 605 runs in 16 matches at an average of 43.21 and a strike rate of 181.14. He scored one century and five fifties in the just-concluded season of the domestic T20 league.

Falling out of favour with the national selectors after an extended lean patch with the willow, Rahane struck form in this year’s IPL, aggregating 326 runs in 14 matches at an average of 32.60. He also smashed two fifties in the season.

Jadeja, too, shone in all three aspects of the game in this season of the IPL, bringing up 190 runs and also scalping 20 wickets for the eventual champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK).

India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, KS Bharat (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Mohd Shami, Mohd Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat and Ishan Kishan (wk).

Standby players: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Mukesh Kumar and Suryakumar Yadav.

Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis (wk), Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc and David Warner.

Standby players: Mitch Marsh and Matthew Renshaw. (ANI)