Team India start training in New York ahead of T20 WC opener against Ireland

NEW YORK : Team India started its training in New York ahead of their ICC T20 World Cup opening clash against Ireland on June 5.

The ICC T20 World Cup will be played in the West Indies and the USA from June 1 to 29. Men in Blue will also play Bangladesh in their only warm-up game on June 1 at Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York.

Indian pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah took to Instagram to share a picture of some Indian players warming up, including Bumrah himself, pacer Arshdeep Singh, all-rounders Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, Shivam Dube and number one ranked batter in T20Is, Suryakumar Yadav.

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A post shared by jasprit bumrah (@jaspritb1)

Bumrah’s form, pace, yorkers and fitness will play a crucial role in deciding how far Men in Blue go in their campaign. Having missed the 2022 edition of the tournament in Australia due to injuries, the Indian team felt his absence really hard as they were crushed by England by 10 wickets in the semifinals.

In 10 T20 WC matches across 2016 and 2021 editions, Bumrah took 11 wickets at an average of 22.54 and a strike rate of 21.0, with the best figures of 2/10.

The pacer showed some excellent form in the recently concluded Indian Premier League (IPL), even though his franchise Mumbai Indians (MI) finished at the last spot with just four wins in 14 games. In 13 games, he took 20 wickets at an average of 16.80 and an economy rate of just 6.48, with the best figures of 5/21. He was the third-highest wicket-taker in the tournament.

India will start their T20 World Cup campaign on June 5 against Ireland at the newly constructed Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York.

Meanwhile, the most-awaited blockbuster clash between India and Pakistan will take place on June 9. They will later play tournament co-hosts USA (June 12) and Canada (June 15) to wrap up their Group A matches.

In the tournament, India will be aiming to end their ICC trophy drought, having last won the ICC Champions Trophy in 2013. Since then, India has reached the 50-over World Cup final in 2023, semifinal in 2015 and 2019, the title clash of the ICC World Test Championship in 2021 and 2023, T20 WC final in 2014, semifinals in 2016 and 2022 but failed to secure a big ICC trophy.

India will be aiming to win their first T20 WC title since they won the inaugural edition of the tournament back in 2007 in South Africa. In the last edition held in Australia in 2022, India lost to England by 10 wickets in the semifinals.

India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Hardik Pandya (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Siraj

Reserves: Shubman Gill, Rinku Singh, Khaleel Ahmed and Avesh Khan. (ANI)