There were injury concerns for Bumrah and Kuldeep ahead of Saturday’s selection, with Kuldeep having not played any competitive cricket since his hernia operation in November, while Bumrah suffered a stress-related injury during the fifth Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. . Kuldeep built up his bowling load at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru and would bowl 10-12 overs at a time.
With Virat Kohli at No. 3, the middle order has the same look as the squad for the 2023 ODI World Cup with Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul retaining their places, along with all-rounders Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel. Besides Rahul, Rishabh Pant is the other wicketkeeper in the number 15, preferred ahead of Sanju Samson who did not feature in the recent Vijay Hazare Trophy. Washington Sundar is the fourth all-rounder in the team, which features only four specialist bowlers.
The final squad for the Champions Trophy must be submitted to the ICC by February 11.
India will play three bilateral ODIs against England on February 6, 9 and 12 – their first 50-over matches since the tour of Sri Lanka in August last year – before the Champions Trophy. India are part of Group A of the Champions Trophy and begin their campaign against Bangladesh on February 20, after which they will face Pakistan on February 23 and New Zealand on March 2. India will play all its matches in Dubai because its government refused to let the team travel to Pakistan.
Indian squad for 2025 Champions Trophy
Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill (Vice-Captain), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja
