Sunrisers Hyderabad eased past Rajasthan Royals by 36 runs in Qualifier 2 on Friday to set up a mouth-watering IPL final against the Kolkata Knight Riders.
While all eyes will be on the final, fans will certainly rue not having one of the big India stars in the title clash on Sunday.
Believe it or not, but no player from India's T20 World Cup squad will feature in the IPL final.
Mumbai Indians, who finished bottom in the league standings, have the most players (4) in the World Cup squad including Captain Rohit Sharma, Vice-Captain Hardik Pandya along with Suryakumar Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah.
Rajasthan Royals and Delhi Capitals have three players each, along with two players each from Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Chennai Super Kings and one from Punjab Kings.
No player from Sunrisers Hyderabad, Kolkata Knight Riders, Lucknow Super Giants and Gujarat Titans were picked for the T20 World Cup.
KKR's Rinku Singh was unlucky not to make it to India's 15-member T20 World Cup squad as he made it as one of the reserves.
SRH had a few top performers in IPL 2024 who despite outstanding performances failed to impress the selectors. Abhishek Sharma has been one of the most destructive batters this season, while Thangarasu Natarajan also missed out.
Some of the Indian players are not in great form going into the World Cup, including Hardik Pandya, Rohit Sharma and Mohammed Siraj.
2016 champions SRH led by Pat Cummins have made it past the league stage for the first time in four years. On the other hand, KKR also made it to the play-offs after bowing out in the league stage in the last two seasons.
In his first season as captain in the IPL, Cummins is on the cusp of adding another glittering chapter to his already impressive record as skipper across formats.
Captain Cummins will be targetting another major title, having led Australia to the ICC World Test Championship title and the ODI World Cup title last year.
India begin their World Cup campaign against Ireland on June 5 at the Nassau county international cricket stadium in New York, followed by the marquee clash against Pakistan on June 9 at the same venue. India will then play the USA and Canada on June 12 and 15 respectively.
India's squad for T20 World Cup: Rohit Sharma (captain), Hardik Pandya (vice-captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Sanju Samson (wicket-keeper), Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj.
Reserves: Shubman Gill, Rinku Singh, Khaleel Ahmed, Avesh Khan.
