’It’s coming home’: Special Air India chartered flight arrives in Barbados to bring back team India

A special Air India chartered flight has arrived at Barbados Airport to take the Men in Blue home, who have been stranded in Barbados after winning the T20 World Cup on June 29. The Air India flight had to be sent to the Caribbean islands owing to flight cancellations due to Hurricane Beryl.

The special flight will also carry media personnel who went to Barbados to cover the 20 over World Cup but were subsequently left stranded owing to the hurricane.

BCCI Vice-president Rajeev Shukla had first informed about the Indian cricketing board arranging a special chartered flight to bring the World Cup victors home on Tuesday. Shukla had informed that the flight would reach Barbados on Wednesday evening and BCCI secretary Jay Shah is monitoring the whole situation.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Shukla wrote, “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.” Shukla added.

Notably, BCCI had replaced Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shivam Dube, and Sanju Samson with Sai Sudharsan, Jitesh Sharma and Harshit Rana for the first two T20 International matches of the upcoming India vs Zimbabwe series on Tuesday owing to the World Cup winning squad being stuck in West Indies.

India's triumph in Barbados:

In a landmark achievement last week, Rohit Sharma's India won the T20 World Cup after a 17-year wait. Soon after the victory, India's veteran cricketers Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja decided to bid farewell to the shortest format of the game. Meanwhile, the World Cup also marked the end of Rahul Dravid's career as India coach. Dravid's tenure as head coach ended after the 2023 ODI World Cup, but he was given a short-term extension for the 20-over mega-event in June.