Champions Trophy: Rohit To Lead, Shubman Gill Vice-Captain; Siraj Dropped, Kuldeep Back

Mumbai: Rohit Sharma, who had stood down from the final Test of the recent Border-Gavaskar Trophy due to lack of form, will lead India in next month’s ICC Champions Trophy.

Shubman Gill has been named as Rohit’s deputy for the prestigious ODI tournament which will be hosted by Pakistan on its soil and in Dubai (only India’s games).

The 15-member squad, announced by chief selector Ajit Agarkar and Rohit, includes pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, who had injury concerns and didn’t bowl in Australia’s second innings in the Sydney Test.

Wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav, who missed the Australia tour as he underwent a hernia surgery, is back in the squad, along with three spin allrounders Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel and Washington Sundar.

Bumrah apart, the two specialist fast bowlers are Mohammed Shami and Arshdeep Singh, with allrounder Hardik Pandya likely to play the third or fourth seamer’s role.

Mohammed Siraj has been left out, so has wicketkeeper-batter Sanju Samson.

Karun Nair, who has been the most prolific batter in domestic cricket, amassing 752 runs in 7 innings with 5 centuries playing for Vidarbha, failed to make the cut.

“He (Nair) has earned out attention. Conversations will be around him if someone is injured and there’s a place that crops up in the squad,” Agarkar said.

Opener Yashasvi Jaiswal, who has not played too much white-ball cricket for India, has been included among the 15.

INDIA SQUAD FOR CHAMPIONS TROPHY

Rohit Sharma (captain), Shubman Gill (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant & Ravindra Jadeja.

Note: The same squad will do duty in the three-match ODI series against England before the Champions Trophy, with Harshit Rana to be in squad for Bumrah for the first two matches,