The Board announced that the squad for the eight-team event, starting from 1st of next month 1 in England, will be picked tomorrow. The board had missed the squad announcement deadline of April 25 due to revenue sharing issues with the ICC. Thankfully, though better sense has prevailed.
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India batsman Rohit Sharma and pace bowler Mohammed Shami have both returned to the national team for the Champions Trophy in June. It’s a solid settled team with few surprises.
Harbhajan made his last ODI appearance for India in October 2015, while his most recent global appearance in any format of the game came more than a year ago against UAE during the 2016 Asia Cup T20.
Manish Pandey in action in Australia. “I hope to perform my best at the Champions Trophy”, he said on Monday, adding that that he wants to start from where he left two years back.
Shami, who has been regularly turning up for Delhi Daredevils in the ongoing Indian Premier League, felt it was a good platform for him to prepare for the Champions Trophy. Meanwhile, Ravindra Jadeja – the highest wicket-taker of the same edition – will share the spin department with Ravichandran Ashwin. I am enjoying the IPL and I am looking forward to making a comeback by doing well.
The other area where the team could face an issue is with regards to the fitness of Mohammed Shami, who like Rohit has not played for India in any format, since November 2016.
“We definitely considered the name of Kuldeep”.
No question marks here.
Shikhar Dhawan, Yuvraj Singh, Umesh Yadav, Kedar Jadhav and Jasprit Bumrah have also retained their spot in the squad. A lot has changed in India cricket since and the Bengal pacer says he too has changed, for the better that is.
In the all-rounder department, India will have the services of Hardik Pandya, Ravi Jadeja, Ravi Ashwin. He came back to competitive cricket in March and has played all 11 matches for Mumbai Indians in the IPL.
“It is not that Ashwin is out of form”, Prasad said.
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Dhoni remains a key player for Team India. Hopefully, we will see Suresh Raina in the blue jersey very soon for Champions Trophy matches. And, it seems, the selectors have gone ahead with Rahane as the favoured choice. These five players will train at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru and the BCCI will proceed with their visa applications to the United Kingdom in case quick replacements are needed later.
