In a body blow for India, Jasprit Bumrah will miss the Champions Trophy. The team’s best fast bowler hasn’t recovered from a lower back injury he had sustained during the Test series in Australia and will be unavailable for the entire tournament. Harshit Rana will replace him in the squad. The Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee has also drafted in spinner Varun Chakravarthy at the expense of opener Yashasvi Jaiswal.
“Fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah has been ruled out of the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy due to a lower back injury,” said the BCCI press release. “The Men’s Selection Committee has named Harshit Rana as Bumrah’s replacement.”
It added: “Team India have also named Varun Chakravarthy in the squad. The spinner will replace Yashasvi Jaiswal who was initially named in the provisional squad.”
Bumrah couldn’t bowl in the second innings in the final Test against Australia in Sydney due to back spasms. After returning home, he went to the Centre of Excellence in Bangalore where he underwent scans. It is learnt that the scan results didn’t reveal anything serious and Bumrah’s omission is more of a precautionary measure. The selectors and the team management refused to take any chances with Indian cricket’s most valuable player. India will tour England for a five-Test series in June and the team will need Bumrah in top shape for that marquee assignment.
Rana played in the first two ODIs in the ongoing series against England and gave a good account of himself. In Bumrah’s absence, however, the onus will be on Mohammed Shami to lead the pace attack.
Varun was drafted into the ODI squad for the ongoing series against England as an additional member and he made his debut in Cuttack, returning with 1/54 from 10 overs. Rohit Sharma had spoken about how the spinner – who was in roaring form in the T20Is that preceded the one-dayers – “offers something different”. Jaiswal was in the provisional squad for the Champions Trophy as a reserve opener, but with Rohit getting back among runs, the selectors decided to replace him with Varun.
India’s squad for ICC Champions Trophy, 2025: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill (Vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (WK), Rishabh Pant (WK), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Mohd. Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Varun Chakaravarthy.
Non Travelling substitutes: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Mohammed Siraj and Shivam Dube. The three players will travel to Dubai as and when required.