In a disheartening turn of events for the Australian cricket team, fast bowler Josh Hazlewood has been ruled out of the highly anticipated WTC final 2023 against India starting on June 7, due to his ongoing Achilles and side issues.

Also Read: "Really happy to be back with the Indian Team," Ajinkya Rahane in an interview with BCCI ahead of the WTC Final 2021-23

Hazlewood's absence comes as a blow to the team's plans. But the selectors have swiftly moved to fill the void by including Michael Neser in their 15-player squad for this week's ICC WTC final 2023 against India at The Oval. With this, it is a good chance for Scott Boland to make a place in the playing XI. Neser has played two Tests and two ODIs for Australia.

"Michael's County form has been strong and knowing that he was going to be close by allowed for him to keep playing and for us to be able to call on him. He is a great strength to have as part of the fast bowling group." Chair of Selectors George Bailey said.

BREAKING: Josh Hazlewood has been ruled out of the World Test Championship final - Michael Neser replaces him in Australia's squad#WTC23 #WTCFinal pic.twitter.com/ZvvTULuywq

— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) June 4, 2023

Josh Hazlewood, known for his accuracy, swing, and ability to extract bounce from the surface, has been an integral part of the Australian bowling attack. He has been battling injury since he departed his stint with the Royal Challengers Bangalore early during the IPL 2023. In this season, he played only 3 matches and after that, Hazlewood did not play any matches. After that, Australia has decided to take no risks with the right-armer ahead of a busy upcoming schedule. Hazlewood is one of the best players of Australia and his exit is a big blow for the team.

Also Read: Sourav Ganguly returns as commentator in the WTC Final 2023

"Josh was very, very close to being given the green light but we are cognisant that our upcoming schedule means this is not a one-off Test match of us. This will give Josh an ideal preparation leading into Edgbaston. With six Test matches in a little over seven weeks we will need all of our fast bowling assets." Bailey added.

Significantly, Josh Hazlewood has played 59 Test matches for Australia. During this time he has taken 222 wickets in 111 innings. At the same time, he has taken 108 wickets in 69 ODIs and 58 wickets in 41 T20 matches. On the other hand, talking about IPL, he has taken 35 wickets in 27 matches.

Updated Australian squad for the WTC Final 2023: 

• Pat Cummins (C)
• Scott Boland
• Alex Carey (WK)
• Cameron Green
• Marcus Harris
• Travis Head
• Josh Inglis (WK)
• Usman Khawaja
• Marnus Labuschagne
• Nathan Lyon
• Todd Murphy
• Michael Neser
• Steve Smith (VC)
• Mitchell Starc
• David Warner

Standby players: 

• Mitch Marsh
• Matthew Renshaw

As the much-awaited IPL 2025 is set to resume from May 17, after facing disruption for several days due to the India-Pakistan conflict. As a result, many overseas players, who had flown back to their respective countries, are facing trouble rejoining their IPL franchises.

Some have stated injury issues, while others have their international commitments ahead. Therefore, each team had to make certain changes and sign temporary replacements for the remaining matches.

Find the IPL 2025 updated squads and full replacement list of each team below.

List of replacement players and their reason for inclusion 

Read Also: IPL 2025 Restart: Here's the playoff scenarios before IPL 2025 resumes

Breakdown of updated squads for the remainder of IPL 2025

Here's the team-wise updated squad for the remainder of IPL 2025:

Gujarat Titans 

A sigh of relief for GT fans, as Jos Buttler will play the remaining 3 matches of league stage. He will fly out before playoffs for his national commitments.

Shubman Gill (c), Kusal Mendis, Dasun Shanaka, B. Sai Sudharshan, Shahrukh Khan, Kagiso Rabada, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Nishant Sindhu, Mahipal Lomror, Kumar Kushagra, Anuj Rawat, Manav Suthar, Washington Sundar, Gerald Coetzee, Mohmmad Arshad Khan, Gurnoor Singh Brar, Sherfane Rutherford, R. Sai Kishore, Ishant Sharma, Jayant Yadav, Karim Janat, Kulwant Khejroliya.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru 

No official confirmation has been received yet regarding Josh Hazlewood rejoining RCB for the remainder of IPL 2025.

Rajat Patidar (c), Virat Kohli, Yash Dayal, Phil Salt, Jitesh Sharma, Liam Livingstone, Rasikh Dar, Suyash Sharma, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Swapnil Singh, Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Nuwan Thushara, Manoj Bhandage, Jacob Bethell, Mayank Agarwal, Swastik Chhikara, Lungi Ngidi, Abhinandan Singh, Mohit Rathee.

Read Also: IPL 2025: Here are the overseas players who might not come for the remainder of the tournament

Punjab Kings 

Shreyas Iyer (c), Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Shashank Singh, Prabhsimran Singh, Harpreet Brar, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Yash Thakur, Marco Jansen, Josh Inglis, Azmatullah Omarzai, Harnoor Pannu, Kuldeep Sen, Priyansh Arya, Aaron Hardie, Musheer Khan, Suryansh Shedge, Xavier Bartlett, Pyla Avinash, Pravin Dubey, Nehal Wadhera, Mitchell Owen, Kyle Jamieson.

Mumbai Indians 

Hardik Pandya (c), Jasprit Bumrah, Rohit Sharma, Tilak Verma, Trent Boult, Naman Dhir, Robin Minz, Karn Sharma, Ryan Rickelton, Deepak Chahar, Will Jacks, Ashwani Kumar, Mitchell Santner, Reece Topley, Shrijith Krishnan, Raj Angad Bawa, Venkat Satyanarayana Raju, Bevon Jacobs, Arjun Tendulkar, Raghu Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Mujeeb-ur-Rahman, Corbin Bosch.

Delhi Capitals 

Mitchell Starc won't make a comeback for the remainder of IPL 2025 due to his national commitments. However, there is no announcement of his replacement yet.

Axar Patel (c), KL Rahul, Mustafizur Rahman, Sediqullah Atal, Karun Nair, Abhishek Porel, Tristian Stubbs, Kuldeep Yadav, T Natarajan, Sameer Rizvi, Ashutosh Sharma, Mohit Sharma, Faf du Plessis, Mukesh Kumar, Darshan Nalkande, Vipraj Nigam, Dushmanta Chameera, Donovan Ferreira, Ajay Mandal, Manvanth Kumar, Tripurana Vijay, Madhav Tiwari.

Read Also: IPL 2025: Will Mitchell Starc have to pay the price for pulling out mid-way? Explained

Kolkata Knight Riders 

Ajinkya Rahane (c), Rinku Singh, Quinton de Kock, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Venkatesh Iyer, Ramandeep Singh, Andre Russell, Anrich Nortje, Harshit Rana, Sunil Narine, Varun Chakaravarthy, Vaibhav Arora, Mayank Markande, Rovman Powell, Manish Pandey, Spencer Johnson, Luvnith Sisodia, Anukul Roy, Chetan Sakariya, Moeen Ali.

Lucknow Super Giants 

Rishabh Pant (c), David Miller, Aiden Markram, Nicholas Pooran, Mitchell Marsh, Avesh Khan, Ravi Bisnoi, Abdul Samad, Aryan Juyal, Akash Deep, Himmat Singh, M Siddharth, Digvesh Singh, Shahbaz Ahmed, Ayush Badoni, Akash Singh, Shamar Joseph, Prince Yadav, Yuvraj Chaudhary, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Arshin Kulkarni, Matthew Breetzke, William O'Rourke, Shardul Thakur.

Sunrisers Hyderabad 

Pat Cummins (c), Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Heinrich Klassen, Nitish Reddy, Ishan Kishan, Mohammad Shami, Harshal Patel, Rahul Chahar, Harsh Dubey, Atharva Taide, Abhinav Manohar, Simarjeet Singh, Zeeshan Ansari, Jaydev Unadkat, Kamindu Mendis, Aniket Verma, Eshan Malinga, Sachin Baby, Wiaan Mulder.

Rajasthan Royals 

Sanju Samson (c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Jofra Archer, Wainindu Hasaranga, Maheesh Theekshana, Akash Madhwal, Kumar Kartikeya Singh, Tushar Deshpande, Shubham Dubey, Yudhvir Charak, Fazal Farooqi, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Kwena Maphaka, Kunal Rathore, Ashok Sharma, Nandre Burger, Lhuan-dre Pretorius.

Chennai Super Kings 

MS Dhoni (c), Ayush Mhatre, Urvil Patel, Dewald Brevis, Ravindra Jadeja, Shivam Dube, Matheesha Pathirana, Noor Ahmad, Ravichandran Ashwin, Devon Conway, Syed Khaleel Ahmed, Rachin Ravindra, Rahul Tripathi, Vijay Shankar, Shaik Rasheed, Anshul Kamboj, Mukesh Choudhary, Deepak Hooda, Nathan Ellis, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Ramakrishnan Ghosh, Shreyas Gopal, Andre Siddarth.

RCB fans in Bengaluru to wear white for Virat Kohli Test tribute? Yes! Fans are planning a special "wear white" initiative and asking the crowd to show up in whites for the upcoming RCB vs KKR match at Chinnaswamy Stadium on May 17, 2025.

As the IPL is set to resume tomorrow, and we will witness Virat Kohli play his first match after his announcement of test retirement, fans are organising a heartfelt tribute for the King!

The viral spread of white wave

A fan-driven moment is going viral recently where they call the crowd to wear white for a collective tribute to Virat Kohli after his test retirement.

Whether you have a test jersey or not, all they ask for is wearing anything white instead of the jerseys of IPL franchises.

Discussions on Reddit

The white tribute takes shape on reddit as fans try to reach out as much as possible.

Fans pledge to wear white in Instagram comments

Fans leave heartfelt messages on comments section of official Royal Challengers Bengaluru Instagram page.

Hashtags like #WearWhiteForVirat, #KohliTestTribute, and #KohliTestFarewell are the ones people are using to make this a trend before the upcoming IPL 2025 match.

Content Creators spreading the word

Many content creators have joined hands to support this initiative and they are getting huge responses.

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Harsha Bhogle reacts on Twitter 

Hey @RCBTweets fans, are you planning to turn up in white for the game on the 17th? Remember seeing a post suggesting that. It will be incredible and a sight for the ages if true and if you can pull it off.

— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) May 15, 2025

The comments section in response to the initiative is getting flooded with comments like "Count me in," and "Wearing white with pride!" 

Many are tagging their acquaintance with messages like "@[friends username] Let's do it!"

Will you show up on May 17 at Chinnaswamy Stadium in whites too?

The ICC World Test Championship 2023-2025 saw some stellar batting performances. Some players have consistently showed how good they are with the bat, and secured their top spot. 

As the WTC 2023-25 is approaching its end, it is now time to look at those huge numbers by some sensational test batters.

Check out these names with most runs in WTC 2023-25.

1. Joe Root (1968 runs) | England 

Joe Root, who is in the top 5 for most runs in test career among some legendary test batters, holds the 1st rank for most runs in WTC 2023-25. He is a central figure for England in tests.

Root's contribution in the WTC 2023-25 cycle has been immense. He scored 1968 runs in 22 matches, with his highest score being 262 against Pakistan, which is the second-highest individual score by an English batter in WTC 2023-25 cycle.

He scored 7 centuries in this cycle, which is unmatched so far.

Read Also: Joe Root to break Sachin Tendulkar's Record of Runs In Test Cricket, predicts Ricky Ponting

Joe Root stats in WTC 2023-2025

2. Yashasvi Jaiswal (1789 runs) | India

Yashasvi Jaiswal made his debut in test cricket during the WTC 2023-25 cycle and his journey was nothing short of sensational. He emerged as the highest run-scorer for India and holds the 2nd rank for most runs in WTC 2023-25.

He scored a total of 1798 runs in 19 matches, with 2 back-to-back double centuries against England, which showcased his ability to dominate in this format.

Read Also: IND vs ENG: Yashasvi Jaiswal becomes fastest Indian to complete 1000 runs in Test cricket

Yashasvi Jaiswal stats in WTC 2023-2025

3. Ben Duckett (1470 runs) | England 

The opening batter for England, Ben Duckett, was phenomenal in the WTC 2023-25 cycle. He consistently provided decent starts to his team with the kind of explosive batting he is known for.

Ben scored 1470 runs in 22 matches and holds the 3rd rank for most runs in WTC 2023-25. He scored 2 centuries during his campaign and proved to be one of the key batters for England.

Read Also: Highest wicket-takers in WTC 2023-25

Ben Duckett stats in WTC 2023-2025

Other players with 1400+ runs in WTC 2023-25

The England batters have purely dominated the list for most runs in WTC 2023-25, with their 3 batters appearing in top 5. Harry Brook is the third batter from England who is in the top 5 of this list, having 1400+ runs.

Australian batters like Steve Smith and Travis Head also performed brilliantly in this championship, but only Usman Khawaja could make it to the top 5 by having a 1400+ runs in total.

Read Also: WTC Final: Australia and South Africa announce their squads

The list will look different after the WTC final between Australia and South Africa, but here is what has happened so far.

As IPL 2025 faced disruptions and was suspended on 9th May, 2025, most of the overseas players returned back to their respective home countries.

The tournament is set to resume from 17th May, 2025, and it raises a crucial question about how many overseas players can rejoin their franchises.

Given their international commitments and other issues, check out the overseas players who might not come for the remainder of the tournament in IPL 2025 for each team.

IPL 2025 Points Table

Firstly, see where each team stands before the tournament resumes.

Read Also: Top 5 underrated players in IPL 2025

Overseas players return status for the remainder of IPL 2025

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has raised the prize money for the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) 2023-25, announcing a massive $3.6 million prize for the winners of the upcoming final between Australia and South Africa, set to take place at Lord’s from June 11-15.

This record-breaking purse, more than double the $1.6 million awarded to previous champions New Zealand (2021) and Australia (2023), underlines the ICC’s commitment to elevating Test cricket’s prestige and importance.

The losing finalists will also walk away with a hefty $2.1 million, surpassing the prize money awarded to past winners. This significant financial boost reflects the ICC’s push to sustain the momentum of the nine-team competition, now in its third thrilling cycle.

Read Also | Highest wicket-takers in WTC 2023-25

WTC Final Details

The stage is set for a clash of titans at the iconic Lord’s Cricket Ground, hosting its first-ever WTC Final. South Africa, buoyed by commanding 2-0 home series wins over Sri Lanka and Pakistan, clinched their spot with 69.44 percentage points.

Defending champions Australia, finishing with 67.54 points, are eager to retain the Test Mace in what promises to be a fiercely contested battle.

Read Also | Fav four in Test cricket: Kohli vs Root vs Williamson vs Smith stats in Tests

ICC Chair Jay Shah expressed his excitement, stating, “The third cycle of the World Test Championship has been captivating, with the finalists decided only in the closing stages. Australia and South Africa will deliver a fitting celebration of Test cricket at Lord’s, and I’m confident fans worldwide will witness top-class action.”

A battle of wills, minds and hearts in the Ultimate Test 👊

The #WTC25 Final at Lord's is upon us 🏟 pic.twitter.com/JsNXpmgOXD

— ICC (@ICC) May 15, 2025

What did the captains say?

Australian captain Pat Cummins, reflecting on the honour of defending their title, said, “Playing at Lord’s for the World Test Championship is a proud moment for us. South Africa will bring a tough challenge, and we’re ready to give it our all at the home of cricket.”

South Africa’s Temba Bavuma echoed the sentiment, emphasising the significance of the occasion. “Reaching the WTC Final is a huge opportunity to win an ICC title. Lord’s is the perfect stage, and we’re determined to put our best foot forward against Australia.”

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Prize Money Breakdown

The increased prize money extends beyond the finalists, with the full breakdown as follows:

• Winner: $3,600,000

• Runners-up: $2,160,000

• Third (India): $1,440,000

• Fourth (New Zealand): $1,200,000

• Fifth (England): $960,000

• Sixth (Sri Lanka): $840,000

• Seventh (Bangladesh): $720,000

• Eighth (West Indies): $600,000

• Ninth (Pakistan): $480,000