The stage is set for the highly-anticipated Champions Trophy 2025 which is scheduled to get underway from February 19 in Hybrid Model. While England, New Zealand and Bangladesh have already revealed their respective line-ups for the Champions Trophy 2025, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is yet to announce Team India's squad for the marquee tournament.
BCCI meeting on January 18-19 for India's Champions Trophy squad
Earlier reports were doing round that India's Champions Trophy squad will be announced by January 12. However, in an exclusive interaction with Sports Tak, BCCI's vice-president Rajeev Shukla has revealed that when will the team be announced. Rajeev Shukla disclosed that BCCI will conduct a meeting on January 18-19 to take a final call on India's squad for Champions Trophy 2025.
On January 11, BCCI only announced India's squad for the T20I series against England on January 11. However, India will also play a three-match ODI series with England. But BCCI hasn't announced India's squad for both England ODIs and the Champions Trophy. While the selection committee, led by Ajit Agarkar, was initially expected to reveal the provisional squad for the Champions Trophy by January 12 as per ICC guidelines but it got delayed.
The ICC requires participating teams to submit a provisional squad for global events at least a month in advance, allowing for subsequent changes. However, for the Champions Trophy, the ICC requested squads five weeks prior to the tournament's start. It has been learnt that the BCCI, citing commitments in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test series against Australia, sought more time.
The provisional Champions Trophy squad, which will primarily consist of players from the three home ODIs against England, is now expected to be announced around January 18-19 in BCCI meeting.
BCCI in its General Council meeting on January 12 in which they appointed former Assam cricketer Devajit Saikia as the their new secretary. This appointment follows Jay Shah's recent ascension to the position of chairman of the International Cricket Council, which left BCCI secretary role vacant for over a month until Devajit Saikia's appointment.
Saikia's first official duty as secretary was to attend a BCCI meeting alongside president Roger Binny.
The meeting focused on analysing India's recent performance in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia. Reportedly, India captain Rohit Sharma and head coach Gautam Gambhir were also present at the meeting.
The delay in India's Champions Trophy 2025 could also be due to Jasprit Bumrah's injury (back spams) which he picked during Sydney Test. A Grade 1 injury typically requires two to three weeks of rehabilitation before a return to play. However, a Grade 2 injury can extend the recovery period to six weeks. The most severe, a Grade 3 injury, necessitates at least three months of rest and rehabilitation.