The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Devajit Saikia backed the Jasprit Bumrah-less India squad for the Champions Trophy. He believes that the Rohit Sharma-led side are the strong contender to win the title despite ace speedster Bumrah's absence.
Bumrah was ruled out of the Champions Trophy because he is currently on the road to recovery from an injury he got in Australia during the fifth Test match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25. He was initially the part of squad but BCCI announced the updated squad where he was ruled out of the mega event due to injuries.
BCCI announced Harshit Rana as Bumrah's replacement in the squad where veteran speedster Mohammed Shami will lead the pace attack along with Hardik Pandya and Arshdeep Singh.
"We have picked the best team for the Champions Trophy. And I believe we will win the trophy. India have such a big bench strength, and I don't think it (Jasprit Bumrah's absence) will have any major issue with the team combination," Saikia told IANS.
Sakia also believes that the senior batters Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli's recent performance is very positive for Team India. Rohit and Virat who failed to perform in Australia during the five-Test match series got their mojo back in the 2nd and 3rd ODI against England respectively where India whitewashed the visitors in a three-match ODI series.
"Everything is very positive in the team (Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli back in form); see the England series; the results are in front of you. The conditions will be more or less the same in Dubai, like the Indian conditions. India came out in such a good manner (against England) with a series whitewash in ODIs and a 4-1 win in T20Is. The morale and spirit of the team is at the highest level," Saikia added.
Rohit-led India will depart for Dubai on February 15 and they will start their campaign against Bangladesh on February 20 at Dubai International Stadium.
India's squad for ICC Champions Trophy: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (WK), Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Mohd. Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Varun Chakaravarthy.
