T20 World Cup 2024: Team India still stuck in Barbados, return journey expected in next 12 hours

The Men in Blue might be able to return back to India on Tuesday evening as Prime Minister Mia Mottley said she expects the Barbados airport to become operational in the "next six to 12 hours", ending the curfew caused by Hurricane Beryl, reported the PTI.

Rohit Sharma’s team and their families have been stranded in Barbados for the past two days, after their win as Hurricane Beryl intensified, affecting electricity and water supply. The hurricane was expected to pass on Monday.

"We hope, and we're working towards later today. I don't want to speak in advance of it, but I've literally been in touch with the airport personnel and they're doing their last checks now and we want to resume to normal operations as a matter of urgency," Mottley, who has been overseeing relief operations on the ground, told PTI.

According to latest reports, Hurricane Beryl is intensifying and taking aim at the southeastern Caribbean. The storm that was classified as Category 3 earlier, has now strengthened into an extremely dangerous Category 4. Becoming life threatening with intense rainfall, the hurricane has led to one person’s death, reported the CNN.

Mottley said the government was working hard to ensure everyone’s safety including Barbados’ citizens and the Indian cricket team. She was grateful that the storm didn’t make landfall.

"The hurricane was 80 miles south of us, which limited, the level of damage on shore. But as you can see, we've had costal, infrastructure and costal assets have been badly damaged," said Mottley to PTI.

Hurricane Beryl further caused a complete power cut across the Winward Islands. Bridgetown is getting everything together, as another hurricane is expected on Wednesday.

"It could have been a lot worse, but now is the time to do the recovery and the cleanup.", Mia Mottley told PTI.