India Drops Siraj, Picks Bumrah, Kuldeep for Champions Trophy; Harshit Rana Selected for England ODIs

ND Prashant
18 Jan 2025
15:32

India's senior national selection committee threw a few curveballs with its decision to include Jasprit Bumrah in the team for the Champions Trophy even though the pace spearhead is expected to miss the preceding white-ball series with England.

Ajit Agarkar

The selectors also included Hardik Pandya, who has not played many domestic matches in recent times and despite not being involved in red-ball matches. India has also brought back Mohammed Shami for the twin assignments. Shami has played a couple of domestic matches but was not included in the second half of the Australia tour because he was still working with the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru.

Though Bumrah's availability is subject to being fit in time for the tournament starting in three weeks, chief selector Ajit Agarkar expressed optimism about his participation.

Bumrah picked up a back spasm and did not bowl in the second innings of the Sydney Test in the recently-concluded Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test series in Australia, raising concerns over his match fitness for India’s upcoming two white-ball assignments. However, the selectors seem to be optimistic about the star pacer recovering in time for the Champions Trophy. .

Ajit Agarkar
Bumrah was asked to offload for five weeks, BCCI will put something out from the medical team. Hopefully, he is okay after the first week of February.

While picking Bumrah despite his fitness being unclear, the selectors dropped Telengana pacer Mohammed Siraj and instead opted to go with left-arm fast-bowler Arshdeep Singh.

Young left-handed opener Yashasvi Jaiswal and left-arm wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav, who was out of action since October last year due to a hernia surgery, have been picked for both the three ODIs against England in the subsequent Champions Trophy. For the three ODIs against England, seam-bowling all-rounder Harshit Rana has been included.

India will be playing three ODIs against England on February 6, 9, and 12 in Nagpur, Cuttack, and Ahmedabad, before the Champions Trophy begins in Karachi on February 19.

India is in Group A and will play its Champions Trophy games in Dubai, as they didn’t get permission from the government to travel to Pakistan. India, the two-time Champions Trophy winners, will begin their campaign against Bangladesh on February 20, after which they play against arch-rivals Pakistan on February 23, before facing New Zealand on March 2.

While elaborating on the reasons for omitting Siraj from the white-ball squad, skipper Rohit Sharma said the pacer becomes ineffective when bowling with an old ball. In contrast, Arshdeep Singh was the highest wicket-taker in the Vijay Hazare Trophy and was found to be quite lethal in the last 10 overs of the innings.

Rohit Sharma
That's purely because we thought over it. We are not sure about Bumrah, whether he is going to play or not. So, we thought of wanting someone who can bowl with the new ball and at the backend. So we picked Arshdeep to bowl at the backend. Shami, we all saw what he can do with the new ball.
Rohit Sharma
That is where we feel that Siraj’s effectiveness comes down a little bit when he is not bowling with the new ball. We discussed it at length, as we are only taking three seamers there because we wanted all these all-rounders with us. It's an unfortunate thing that he has to miss out.
Rohit Sharma
But we had no option but to get the guys who can perform a certain role. I personally feel we have guys who can bowl with the new ball, be effective in the middle, and at the backend, as well as cover all facets of the game. With these three bowlers, we think we can do that.

India squad for England ODI series and Champions Trophy: 

  • Rohit Sharma (c),
  • Virat Kohli,
  • Shubman Gill (vc),
  • Shreyas Iyer,
  • KL Rahul,
  • Hardik Pandya,
  • Axar Patel,
  • Washington Sundar,
  • Kuldeep Yadav,
  • Jasprit Bumrah,
  • Mohammed Shami,
  • Arshdeep Singh,
  • Yashasvi Jaiswal,
  • Rishabh Pant,
  • Ravindra Jadeja,
  • Harshit Rana (England ODIs only)
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