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India cricket have suffered a major injury blow ahead of the Champions Trophy with fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah ruled out with a lower back issue.
Bumrah picked up the problem towards the end of the Border Gavaskar Trophy in Australia in January and has not recovered sufficiently to play any part in the upcoming tournament.
Named ICC Men’s Cricketer of the Year after an extraordinary 2024 across formats, the pace ace had originally been included in India’s 15-man squad for the event with hopes that he would recover in time.
But on the day that squads had to be confirmed, India have confirmed that Harshit Rana will replace Bumrah in their party, with mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy also earning inclusion at the expense of opening batter Yashasvi Jaiswal.
Spearhead Bumrah had been set to lead the attack after starring at the T20 World Cup last year as India claimed an elusive global white-ball trophy.
In his stead, a fit-again Mohammed Shami looks likely to combine with left-arm Arshdeep Singh and Rana in the seam unit with all-rounder Hardik Pandya.
India will play all of their fixtures during the Champions Trophy in Dubai after refusing to travel to Pakistan, which will host the rest of the tournament.
The addition of Chakravarthy to their squad is a nod to the likely spin-friendly conditions they will face. The 33-year-old made his ODI debut against England last weekend after torturing the touring side during the preceding T20I series.
India open their tournament against Bangladesh on 20 February before facing Pakistan and New Zealand in Group A.
Afghanistan, Australia, England and South Africa make up the other group at the eight-team tournament.
India squad for 2025 Champions Trophy: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill (Vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (WK), Rishabh Pant (WK), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Varun Chakaravarthy.
