'WTC o’clock': Captain Rohit Sharma joins his India teammates in England ahead of WTC final

Rohit Sharma has joined the rest of his Indian teammates in England as they prepare for the WTC final against Australia

India captain Rohit Sharma has reached England and joined the rest of his teammates who were already in the country as the players acclimatise to the conditions ahead of the World Test Championship final against Australia. The one-off Test, which will decide the winner of the 2021/23 WTC cycle, will be hosted at The Oval and will start on June 7.

Rohit Sharma travelled along with his Mumbai Indians teammates and Yashasvi Jaiswal(BCCI)

Rohit travelled with Yashasvi Jaiswal, who is part of the reserves for the squad. Jaiswal had earlier posted a selfie of the pair on his Instagram handle. “Off to England, for the World Test Championship Final with the one and only Rohit Sharma. I trust I believe," he wrote as caption. The BCCI and Rohit himself on Tuesday said that he had now joined the Indian team.

Other players with the pair were Rohit's Mumbai Indians teammates Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav. They joined Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara, Axar Patel, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat and Shardul Thakur. With the exception of Pujara, the rest of the players arrived largely according to when their teams' campaign ended in the 2023 Indian Premier League (IPL).

Shubman Gill, Mohammed Shami, KS Bharat, Ravindra Jadeja, and Ajinkya Rahane are all expected to join the players later. They all played in the IPL final where Chennai Super Kings (CSK) beat Gujarat Titans (GT) by 5 wickets in a last-ball thriller to clinch their fifth title. With that, MS Dhoni equalled Rohit's record for most IPL title wins as captain. Rohit's Mumbai Indians reached the second Qualifier after winning their Eliminator against the Lucknow Super Giants. However, they were then thrashed by Gujarat Titans who were buoyed by a 60-ball 129 from Shubman Gill.

India are now set to face Australia in the final of the World Test Championship. The two sides faced each other in a closely fought series hosted by India this year. While India won the first two Tests on a canter, Australia roared back by winning the third by nine wickets. The fourth ended in a draw and India won the series 2-1.