Jasprit Bumrah, Axar Patel involved in a friendly banter ahead of WTC final
Team India is inching closer towards their departure to the United Kingdom for a near four-month-long tour. Currently quarantined in a BCCI-arranged Mumbai facility, all 20 members of the team will head to Southampton on June 3 via a charter flight, as confirmed by the ICC on Saturday (29th May 2021).
Upon their arrival, the team will undergo a mandatory 10-day quarantine, which will include hard quarantine initially, followed by a relaxed schedule with an allowance to train and practice inside the bio-bubble meant for the series.
Before all of this is set in motion, Jasprit Bumrah posted an outdoor click on Instagram, captioning it as, “Reset mode on”. The Indian pacer got a response from teammate Axar Patel, who complimented by saying “Sahi hai” (Looks good). Bumrah, in response, used the Indian web series Mirzapur’s famed dialogue “Yeh bhi theek hai” (This is also ok). The typical conversation left many users to react with laughing emojis.
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India to play six Tests in the UK
The Indian team will be featuring in six Tests overall during their UK tour, which includes the World Test Championship final at Southampton from June 18-22 against New Zealand, followed by the England Test series.
The hosts England, before meeting India, will lock horns with New Zealand in a two-Test series that gets underway from June 2 at Lord’s, followed by the final Test at Edgbaston. Notably, the second Test is set to witness crowds up to 70 per cent of the total capacity of the stadium, while the WTC final between India and New Zealand will also have 4000 spectators.
The ICC recently released the playing conditions for the WTC final, which specifically lay down that in an event of a draw or a tie, the two teams will be declared joint winners. There is also a provisional Reserve Day in place, which shall come into play to make up for any lost time due to inclement weather or bad light.
However, the Reserve Day cannot be exploited to procure a result, but only as a compensation mechanism to cover the loss of net playing time, which is typically 90 overs in a day in Tests.
