Veteran India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, who missed the flight to United Kingdom with the India Test squad last week, will reach England in the next couple of days. a report in Cricbuzz has claimed.
As per the report, Ashwin, 35, is likely to join the squad in Leicester before the four-day warm-up game, beginning on June 24.
The reports said that the veteran spinner will fly to England soon as all arrangements are being made by the Board of Control for Cricket in India.
“Sources within the BCCI and team management in the UK have confirmed to Cricbuzz that the travel arrangements are being made for the veteran cricketer and he should be with the rest of his teammates soon,” the report stated.
“It is learned that Jayant Yadav was kept as a standby should Ashwin fail to recover in time. The Haryana spinner was called to the NCA in Bangalore. However, that option has been ruled out as Ashwin has recovered fully and is expected to fly out in the next 24 hours, most probably on Wednesday (June 24),” it added.
Earlier in 2021, the Indian team had declined to play the fifth and final Test of the series follwoing a Covid-19 scare in their dressing room. The then head coach Ravi Shastri and team physiotherapist too had got infected and as a result, the touring party didn’t wanted to play the game.
Later, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Jay Shah had said that it was a joint decision with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to cancel the fifth Test.
“The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) along with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) have jointly decided to call off the 5th Test Match scheduled at Manchester in ongoing India’s tour of England 2021. The BCCI and ECB held several rounds of discussion to find a way to play the Test Match, however, the outbreak of Covid-19 in the Indian team contingent forced the decision of calling off the Old Trafford Test Match. In lieu of the strong relationship between BCCI and ECB, the BCCI has offered to ECB a rescheduling of the cancelled Test match. Both the Boards will work towards finding a window to reschedule this Test match,” the BCCI statement had said.
Notably, India is scheduled to play hosts England in a Test at Edgbaston, Birmingham, starting on July 1. The match is the decider of the five-Test series that started last summer.
Meanwhile, head coach Rahul Dravid, Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer, who were part of the just-concluded T20I series against South Africa, have already joined the squad in Leicester.
The trio had taken a flight to the UK immediately after the fifth and final T20I ended on Sunday (June 19).