India has announced its 15-memeber squad for the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 which is being hosted in Pakistan. India has recently refused visiting Pakistan citing unknown security concerns. The Indian-national ICC chairman Jay Shah in his meeting proposed South Africa as a venue stating Pakistan’s inefficiency of hosting international tournaments. PCB refused to go with any of the provided solutions be it moving tournament abroad or hybrid model. After weeks-long debates, both PCB and BCCI agreed on a Fusion Model.
With the fusion model, Pakistan agreed on hosting India’s matches on a neutral venue including the semi-final and final match. Pakistan will not travel to India for any of the ICC, ACC, or bilateral series. Also, Pakistan requested a rise in its revenue and more hosting rights for future ICC tournaments.
Indian Squad
India was still more likely to withdraw from the tournament. Yet BCCI has issued a list of 15-member squad for the England series and Champions Trophy. Here is the list:
- Rohit Sharma (Ca)
- Shubman Gill (Vice-captain)
- Virat Kohli
- Shreyas Iyer
- KL Rahul (WK)
- Hardik Pandya
- Axar Patel
- Washington Sundar
- Kuldeep Yadav
Jasprit BumrahHarshit Rana- Mohammed Shami
- Arshdeep Singh
Yashasvi JaiswalWashington Sundar- Rishabh Pant (WK)
- Ravindra Jadeja
Later, BCCI announced the inclusion of harshit Rana as the replacement of Jasprit Bumrah following his back injury. Jasprit has been since 2021 T20 World Cup and had short appearances in last four years.
Young Indian batter Jaiswal was replaced by Washington Sundar. Jaiswal was ‘out of form’ and was benched for the coming mega tournament.