Kettleborough To Meet India In Another ICC Knockout Game as ICC Announces Officials for WTC 2023 Final
ICC's match officials | Source: icc.com
In the latest developments, the International Cricket Council (ICC) has announced the officials for the much-awaited World Test Championship (WTC) Final 2023, scheduled to be played between India and Australia from June 7 at the Kennington Oval. The match will be officiated by Chris Gaffaney and Richard Illingworth, the two on-field umpires for the game, and Richard Kettleborough will be the third umpire. Meanwhile, Kumar Dharmasena and Richie Richardson are designated the fourth umpire and the match referee, respectively, for the WTC Final.
Kettleborough, who was the third umpire during India's defeat in the last WTC Final, has officiated India's every knockout game since the triumph of the Champions Trophy 2013.
Nevertheless, the English umpire will be standing in his 79th Test match when India face Australia in the ICC fixture. Meanwhile, Gaffaney has officiated 48 Test matches to date, and Illingworth has stood in 63 Tests.
India kickstart their practice session
As of yet, most of the Indian Test squad has reached and started their preparations ahead of the WTC Final. Earlier in the day, the likes of Virat Kohli, Jaydev Unadkat, and Cheteshwar Pujara attended their first practice session with the first batch that travelled to London after the conclusion of IPL 2023's league phase.
Meanwhile, the Indian Test captain Rohit Sharma, stumper Ishan Kishan and Test reserves - Suryakumar Yadav and Yashasvi Jaiswal landed in the UK on Monday. Whereas, the Test players - who are busy in IPL Final - will chart the flight from Mumbai on Tuesday.
On the flip side, the Australian contingent is yet to reach England as their departure is due on June 1 (Wednesday).
India, Australia finalise their 15-member squads
Heading into the WTC Final, both teams are jolted with injury scares to their key members. For the Aussies, Josh Hazlewood and Cameron Green are struggling with injuries that they sustained at the fag-end of the Indian T20 league. India, on the other hand, have taken a bet on the left-arm seamer Jaydev Unadkat, who clutched his left shoulder in Lucknow's nets, but he has apparently got fully recovered on time.
Indian Squad for WTC Final
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, Ishan Kishan (wk).
Standbys
Yashasvi Jaiswal, Mukesh Kumar, Suryakumar Yadav.
Australian Squad for WTC Final
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, David Warner.
Standbys
Mitch Marsh, Matthew Renshaw.
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