Star allrounder Ravindra Jadeja stated that playing cricket in New York will be enjoyable after Team India's first practice ahead of their maiden match in the ICC T20 World Cup. From June 1 to June 29, the USA and the West Indies will host the ICC T20 World Cup. In their lone warm-up match, Men in Blue will take on Bangladesh on June 1 at Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York. A peek of their first training session in the US was posted by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on their official social media account.
The players have loosened up on their regimens since arriving in New York, according to Team India's strength and conditioning coach Soham Desai.
"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 US, 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.
On June 5, India will play Ireland in the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup match at the recently built Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York.
In the meantime, June 9 will see the much-anticipated big match between India and Pakistan. Their Group A matches will be concluded later on June 12 against the USA, the tournament co-host, and on June 15 against Canada.
India, who last won the ICC Champions Trophy in 2013, will be looking to snap their trophy drought in the competition. Since then, India has advanced to the 2023 World Cup final for 50 overs, the semifinals in 2015 and 2019, the 2021 and 2023 ICC World Test Championship title match, the 2014 T20 World Cup final, and the semifinals in 2016 and 2022, but they have failed to win a significant ICC trophy.
India 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