Team India’s squad for the upcoming Champions Trophy, as well as the preceeding ODI series against England, was announced on Saturday in Mumbai during a press conference. India captain Rohit Sharma and the BCCI’s chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar addressed the media after a delay of more than two hours. Pacer Mohammed Shami has made a comeback to the ODI squad for the first time after the 50-over World Cup in 2023. Meanwhile, pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah was also included in the squad despite injury concerns.
Bumrah, however, “won’t be available for the first two ODIs against England”, Harshit Rana set to feature.
Despite amassing more than 700 runs in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, Vidarbha captain Karun Nair did not find a place in the team.
Nair’s purple patch with the bat has seen him score 752 runs in seven matches. Agarkar opened up on Nair’s exclusion from the squad.
“Someone averages 700+, those are special performances. At the moment, finding spot in this team is difficult,” said Agarkar.
Nair is the top-run-getter in the team so far, having accumulated a massive 752 runs in seven matches at a mind-boggling average of 752.00 due to him being unbeaten in six innings. He has also scored five centuries and a fifty in the competition, with the best score of 163*. His strike rate is 125.96.
He will have the chance to add to that tally with Vidarbha currently taking on Karnataka in the final of the tournament.
India squad for Champions Trophy: Rohit Sharma (captain), Shubman Gill (vc), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Hardil Pandya, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja, Harshit Rana (only for England series).
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