Mumbai, July 3

The T20 World Cup-winning Indian team will take part in an open bus road show followed by a felicitation ceremony at the Wankhede Stadium here tomorrow.

The Indian team is expected to reach New Delhi at 6:20am tomorrow after departing from Barbados’ Grantley Adams International Airport in a chartered flight which has a special call sign: AIC24WC — Air India Champions 24 World Cup. The departure of the Indian squad was delayed due to Hurricane Beryl.

However, the team, its support staff, the players’ families, some board officials and travelling Indian media finally managed to leave Barbados in the charter flight arranged by the BCCI at 4:50am local time today.

“The team has left from Barbados on a special Air India flight hired by the BCCI. The Indian journalists who were stuck there (Barbados) are also coming on the same flight along with BCCI president (Roger Binny) and secretary (Jay Shah), who are looking after all the arrangements,” BCCI vice-president Rajeev Shukla said.

“The flight will land at Delhi airport tomorrow 6am. The team will meet PM Narendra Modi at 11am at his residence. After this, the team will fly to Mumbai, where a ceremony has been organised. There will be a road show from Nariman Point in an open bus and later we will honour and felicitate the players with the prize money of Rs 125 crore as announced,” he added.

The Indian team will arrive in Mumbai at 4pm and is expected to reach the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA). The open bus parade will start at 5pm from the NCPA, near the famous Nariman Point, and will go on for about two hours before arriving at the Wankhede Stadium. A similar road show was held here 17 years ago when Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s team had beaten arch-rivals Pakistan in the final of the inaugural 2007 World T20 in South Africa. — PTI

From jeers to cheers, Pandya becomes No. 1 T20I all-rounder in world

Dubai: Hardik Pandya rose two places to become the first Indian to occupy the No. 1 spot in the ICC’s T20I all-rounders’ rankings today as the country’s cricketers improved their standings following their title-winning performance in the just-concluded World Cup.

The 30-year-old climbed two places to go level with Sri Lankan star Wanindu Hasaranga as the top-ranked men’s T20I all-rounder. India’s star fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah moved up 12 spots to be just outside the top-10.