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Team India faced a major blow before their ICC Champions Trophy 2025 campaign. After the Test series loss on Australian soil, pace-bowling spearhead Jasprit Bumrah was ruled of Champions Trophy 2025 due to lower back injury. He was replaced by a young Harshit Rana in a squad that was heavily dominated by the spinners. In spin-friendly conditions, Rohit Sharma trusted the spin quartet and it paid dividends as India ended up lifting the trophy. Bumrah took to social media after Ravindra Jadeja hit the winning runs and shared a message for the team.
"Played like true champions! Congratulations to the entire team on a wonderful tournament and a well deserved win!" Bumrah wrote on social media with the image of the whole team's celebration where Virat Kohli is lifting the trophy.
In Bumrah's absence, Rana took three wickets in the campaign opener against Bangladesh. He took one wicket in the high-voltage clash against hosts Pakistan as well. However, for the third match against New Zealand, he was replaced by Varun Chakravarthy. The mystery spinner made a name for himself with a five-wicket haul. He followed it up with crucial wickets against Australia in the semifinal and the same against New Zealand in the final as well on March 9.
Rohit lauded Chakravarthy for his performances in the post-match presentation.
"He has got something different about him - I have said it many a times. When you are playing on a pitch like that you want the batters to force on him and that's where he becomes a lot more dangerous, that was the thought which went behind getting him into the squad and actually playing him. He didn't start off in the tournament for us, but when he played against New Zealand and he got five wickets, we saw the kind of ability he possesses with the ball and we wanted to maximise that and he did not disappoint. He has got great quality about his bowling and luckily for us it came to use at various times," the 38-year-old said.
Bumrah's return delayed
Meanwhile, Bumrah is undergoing rehabilitation. There have been reports that Bumrah may miss the first one or two weeks of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 auction. As per the report, Bumrah is expected to join the Mumbai Indians (MI) squad next month. This means that MI will be without the services of their premier pacer for three to four matches.
