Raina and 6 others to fly directly to Sri Lanka from Zimbabwe

Chennai:

Suresh Raina and six other Indian cricketers will fly directly to Colombo after completing their Twenty20 engagements against Zimbabwe while eight other players will be attending a two-day camp here starting on Sunday, TNCA secretary Kasi Viswanathan said.

According to Viswanathan, the host for the preparatory camp, the Asia Cup-bound India cricketers would attend a two-day camp here on June 11 and 12 barring Raina, Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Ashok Dinda and Pragyan Ojha, who are presently on national duty in Zimbabwe.

Other members of 15-member squad, including skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Harbhajan Singh, Praveen Kumar, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra and Saurabh Tiwary, would arrive here for the camp before departing for Sri Lanka on June 13, Viswanathan said.

The Raina led Indian team failed to make the final of the tri-series, involving Sri Lanka and hosts Zimbabwe, but would play two Twenty20 Internationals matches against The African nation on June 12 and 13.

India will take on Bangladesh in their opening match of the Asia Cup on June 16, followed by mouth-watering clash against arch-rivals Pakistan on June 19.