[Picture] Ravichandran Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Dinesh Karthik, and Harshal Patel enjoy AUS vs ENG opening T20I in Perth ahead of T20 World Cup

Team India’s T20 World Cup-bound players Ravichandran Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Dinesh Karthik, and Harshal Patel watched the opening T20I between Australia and England in Perth on Sunday. Ashwin took to social media to share a selfie on the Instagram story and gave a picturesque view of the stadium.

Ravichandran Ashwin shared a selfie with bunch of Indian players. [Pic credits: Instagram]

Chahal also shared a post for Rajasthan Royals teammate Jos Buttler, who slammed a quickfire 68 off 32 balls for England in his comeback match after recovering from a calf injury.

Yuzvendra Chahal shares good friendship with Jos Buttler. [Pic credits: Instagram]

The Men in Blue are in Perth, Australia, to train ahead of the T20 World Cup warmup fixtures. Rohit Sharma and Co. will play a couple of T20 warmup matches against Western Australia XI on Monday (October 10) and Thursday (October 13).

India’s strength and conditioning coach, Soham Desai, spoke about the importance of the preparation for the showpiece event. He said:

"The upcoming 8-10 days are very crucial for us leading into the World Cup and I can't thank the management and BCCI enough to get these eight days because we always feel we are rushed into the big tournaments, playing so much cricket as Indian team.

".... but these eight days, we are going to gradually build ourselves both physically as well as on the skills front to lead us nicely into the first game of the World Cup."

India are also scheduled to face defending champions Australia and New Zealand on October 17 and 19, respectively, in warm up matches ahead of the start of the marquee event.

---

India to begin T20 World Cup campaign against Pakistan

Rohit Sharma and Co. will begin their T20 World Cup campaign against arch-rivals Pakistan on Sunday (October 23). The side will look to end their 15-year-long wait for winning the biggest T20I title. In fact, the Men in Blue haven't won an ICC title since the 2013 Champions Trophy.

India are in the same group as Pakistan, South Africa, and Bangladesh. A couple of qualifiers will join them in the Super 12 stage.

India squad for the ICC T20 World Cup: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), Hardik Pandya, R. Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah (replacement yet to be announced), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, and Arshdeep Singh.

Standby players - Mohammed Shami, Shreyas Iyer, Ravi Bishnoi, and Deepak Chahar.