India To Miss Jasprit Bumrah In Champions Trophy; KKR Spinner Replaces This Opener

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has received a huge blow before the Champions Trophy 2025 as their premier pacer, Jasprit Bumrah, won’t be part of the tournament due to a back injury. The pacer picked up the issue during the fifth Test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 in Sydney.

Bumrah was supposed to go through a fitness test on February 11 before participating in the third Ahmedabad ODI against England during the ongoing series. But the fast bowler is yet to gain full fitness and will resume bowling in the next couple of weeks.

Harshit Rana replaces Jasprit Bumrah in the Champions Trophy

The Gujarat bowler’s recent scans didn’t reveal anything serious, but the timeline of his return has been confirmed. The BCCI’s medical team in Bengaluru will monitor his progress. This is the same injury that ruled him out of the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia and required surgery.

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He was in tremendous touch during the BGT 2024-25 for India, finishing as the leading wicket-taker of the five Tests with 32 wickets in nine innings at an average of 13.06 and a strike rate of 28.37. The right-arm pacer celebrated three five-wicket hauls and two four-wicket hauls.

Harshit Rana, who has already played in the first two ODIs against England, will replace Bumrah in the main squad. The ICC set February 11 as the deadline for all participating teams to submit their final squads of 15. Subsequent changes will require approval from the event’s technical committee.

Rana debuted for India in Nagpur and shared the new ball with Mohammed Shami. After going for 26 runs in his third expensive over, the Delhi seamer bounced back and picked up three wickets to transfer the pressure back to the visiting side.

A few eyebrows were raised when the selectors decided to go with Harshit over Mohammad Siraj for the England series. The Indian captain mentioned that the latter isn’t valuable with the old ball. Arshdeep Singh will be India’s third specialist pacer of the squad, along with all-rounder Hardik Pandya.

Varun Chakravarthy replaces Yashasvi Jaiswal in late inclusion

The BCCI has also named Varun Chakravarthy in the main squad as a replacement for Yashasvi Jaiswal, who marked his ODI debut in Nagpur. The decision might have come after the captain gained confidence with his comeback century in Cuttack during the second encounter.

Rohit said that Varun’s inclusion in the ICC event for India would depend on his performance in the England series. KKR’s mystery spinner, on ODI debut, picked up 1/54 in his 10 overs. Since his return to the T20I side of the national squad, the Tamil Nadu spinner has picked up 31 wickets in 12 games at a T20I average of 11.25, with the best figure of 5/17.

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Jaiswal, Siraj, and Shivam Dube will be the non-traveling reserves. They will fly to Dubai only if the national side requires one of them to play or participate in the competition. The Blue Brigade will begin their campaign on February 20 against Bangladesh. They will also face Pakistan and New Zealand in the group-stage fixtures.

India’s Updated Squad For Champions Trophy 2025

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 Chakravarthy.

Non-travelling substitutes: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Mohammad Siraj, and Shivam Dube.