India coach Rahul Dravid with captain Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja before leaving for New York to participate in the T20 World Cup 2024.
| Photo Credit: PTI
Following Team India’s first training session ahead of their ICC T20 World Cup opening clash, star allrounder Ravindra Jadeja said it will be fun playing cricket in New York.
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.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) took to their official social media handle and shared and shared a glimpse of their first training session in the US. In the video, Jadeja sounded hopeful before the start of the mega tournament.
“First time we gonna play cricket in New York, it’s gonna be fun,” Jadeja said in the video.The strength and conditioning coach of Team India Soham Desai said the players have eased their routines after reaching New York.
“We came in the day before yesterday and we just eased into our routines here, the players are just getting used to the time zone. Today we are having our first ground session…,” Soham said.
Meanwhile, India pacer Jasprit Bumrah said, “we have not yet played cricket, came here for a team activity today. Hopefully, it will be good. The weather is really good, so we are looking forward to it.”
The Men in Blue vice-captain and allrounder Hardik Pandya said, “very exciting to be here in New York, has a good vibe, bright sun out.”
“I heard the cricket is growing here in the U.S., so we are really excited and the first day here was amazing, so very excited for the few days coming up,” Suryakumar Yadav further added.
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 squad for T20 World Cup:
15-member 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.
