With the 2022 men’s T20 World Cup set to commence in Australia on 16 October, a 14-member Indian squad departed from Mumbai in the early hours of Thursday, 6 October for the ICC mega event Down Under.
The Indian team led by captain Rohit Sharma will begin their T20 campaign against arch-rivals Pakistan on 23 October at Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), similar to the World Cup opener between both sides in last year’s edition.
Team India have decided to leave two weeks ahead of their World Cup campaign in an effort to get acclimatised to the conditions in Australia as half of its squad do not have prior experience playing Down Under.
Once landing in Australia, India under head coach Rahul Dravid will stay for a week-long camp in Perth. They will later travel to Brisbane to play warm up matches against defending champions Australia on 17 October and runners-up New Zealand on 19 October respectively.
The news regarding Team India’s departure was shared by the BCCI on their official Twitter handle.
“Picture perfect Let’s do this #TeamIndia cricketworldcup, here we come,” BCCI posted along with a picture of the Indian squad.
As of now India are sending only a 14-member squad to Australia as they are yet to announce a replacement for premier pacer Jasprit Bumrah who has been ruled out of the tournament due to a back injury.
Head coach Dravid had earlier hinted Mohammed Shami would replace the injured pacer but no official updates regarding his inclusion have been announced.
A lot would depend on Shami’s fitness as he recently recovered from COVID-19 which saw him miss both the T20 series' against Australia and South Africa respectively at home.
Meanwhile, the 14-member squad will be joined by the likes of Shami, Deepak Chahar, Shreyas Iyer and Ravi Bishnoi next week following the conclusion of the ODI series against South Africa. The four players are reserves within the India T20 World Cup squad.
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