The Indian cricket team’s return home was delayed even further as the charter flight, which was to come from New Jersey (USA) got late in reaching Barbados. Rohit Sharma‘s men secured their T20 World Cup 2024 title, defeating South Africa in the final on Saturday, and were to leave for India on Sunday but were forced to remain in the island nation. The Hurricane threat in Barbados forced the government to shut down the airport while all flights were cancelled. Multiple reports on Wednesday morning (India time) suggested that there was a further delay in the Indian team’s departure from Barbados. The players are likely to land in Delhi on Thursday morning.
Around 12:00 PM IST, the flight, bound to bring the Indian players home, landed in Barbados. ANI news agency shared pictures from the airport.
#WATCH | A special flight of Air India lands at Barbados Airport. Team India will fly back to the country on this flight. pic.twitter.com/5q8NaiIJGP
— ANI (@ANI) July 3, 2024
On Tuesday, BCCI vice-president Rajeev Shukla revealed that the players were to fly to Delhi on Wednesday evening (local time), having been stuck in Barbados for three days due to the hurricane.
“Thank God team India is flying back from Barbados this evening to Delhi. Will be reaching tomorrow evening. They were stuck for three days there because of massive hurricane. @BCCI has made all arrangements for safe flight of players back home. BCCI secretary @JayShah himself is monitoring the whole situation,” he posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday.
@BCCI has made all arrangements for safe flight of players back home. BCCI secretary @JayShah himself is monitoring the whole situation. (2/2)
— Rajeev Shukla (@ShuklaRajiv) July 2, 2024
However, a delay in the arrival of the charter flight extended the Indian team’s stay even further.
Team India’s Flight Status:
An Air India special charter flight named AIC24WC — Air India Champions 24 World Cup — is set to bring back the Indian squad, its support staff, the players’ families and some board officials and Indian media, who have been stranded here for the past three days due to hurricane Beryl.
The Rohit Sharma-led side won the title after pulling off a thrilling seven-run win over South Africa in the final on Saturday.
The flight, which took off from New Jersey, USA on July 2, is expected to land in Barbados around 2 am local time.
As per the schedule, the flight is now expected to take off from Barbados at 4:30am (local time). It will take a 16-hour flying time to reach Delhi, where the team will land on Thursday at 6 am (IST) if there are no further delays in their departure.
The Grantley Adams International airport resumed its operations on Tuesday. Earlier, the Indian team was scheduled to leave around 6 pm local time on July 2 and arrive at 7.45pm (IST) on Wednesday.
With PTI Inputs
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