India Tour of England – KL Rahul & Mayank Agarwal: State-mates, best friends, opening pair in Punjab Kings and at times for India, KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal have shared a long journey together. On Wednesday, the two will embark on a similar journey once again, to the UK, to reclaim their spots in India’s Playing XI. As per BCCI instruction, Rahul and Mayank both drive from Bengaluru to Chennai where they will board the chartered flight for Mumbai and then to London and Southampton. India’s long tour of England will begin with the ICC World Test Championship Final (ICC WTC Finals) against Kane Williamson’s New Zealand on June 18, followed by a 5-match Test series against England from August 4.
KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal who have played cricket together for over one and a half-decade in Karnataka, from rivals in club cricket to playing together in Karnataka’s age-group tournaments, have seen each other’s ups and downs. In IPL, they have had memorable partnerships while having each other’s back always.
India Tour of England: KL Rahul fit, Mayank Agarwal ready for tour of England, duo to catch chartered flight from Chennai
India Tour of England – KL Rahul & Mayank Agarwal: On Wednesday, they will be on a different journey together, taking a car from Bengaluru to Chennai to board a chartered flight to Mumbai where they will have to pass two COVID-19 tests before entering BCCI’s bio-bubble on May 24. For KL Rahul, the quarantine will also be an extended period to heal from the appendicitis surgery.
Over the next four months, the two best friends will be in for a difficult period if Shubman Gill gets his form back that he showed in Australia. With new stars like Shubman Gill and old gun Rohit Sharma replacing them as Test openers and finding success, Virat Kohli or the team management is unlikely to make changes to the winning combination that did so well against England at home.
India Tour of England – Big logistic exercise for BCCI, India to leave on 2nd June for India vs New Zealand WTC Finals
India Tour of England – ICC WTC Finals: As for others, it could get even more difficult as BCCI has arranged chartered flights from only three cities, Hyderabad, Chennai and Delhi as per reports. That means many of the 24-member squad including standby players will have to board commercial flights to reach Mumbai. Let’s find out who is going from where and how.
Mumbai-based players: Players who are based out of Mumbai will be able to spend an extra five days at home before joining the bio-bubble. Players and staff have been asked to isolate themselves during that period and will go through regular COVID-19 testing along with their family members. Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Jasprit Bumrah, and Shardul Thakur are all based in Mumbai now and will join the bubble on May 24.
Chartered flight 1 (Hyderabad): While there are two players from Hyderabad in the squad, it will be only Mohammed Siraj who will be available to board the chartered flight as Hanuma Vihari is already in the UK playing county cricket.
Chartered flight 2 (Chennai): With KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal reaching Chennai by road, they will join Ravichandran Ashwin and Washington Sundar for the journey to Mumbai.
Chartered flight 3 (Delhi): From Delhi, the 3rd chartered flight will take off boarding Rishabh Pant, Shubman Gill, Umesh Yadav, Avesh Khan and Abhimanyu Easwaran, who is currently in Dehradun, besides Ishant Sharma will have to take a drive to Delhi from Lucknow.
The rest — especially from Gujarat — that includes Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel and Arzan Nagraswala will have to travel to Mumbai directly by road. Insidesport has learnt that Jadeja will take a flight to Mumbai while BCCI has arranged a car for Arzan.
The two Kolkata-based players — Mohammed Shami and Wriddhiman Saha will have to take commercial flights to reach Mumbai. Shami will reach on May 19 while Saha has been granted permission to reach on May 24 after recovering from COVID-19.