Rohit Sharma and Mohammed Shami have returned to India's ODI squad, named on Monday in a familiar 15-man pool of players for next month's ICC Champions Trophy in England and Wales.
BCCL
This will be Rohit's first international assignment since October, when he sustained a thigh injury during the ODI series against New Zealand. During the ongoing IPL, he has scored 183 runs in 10 innings for Mumbai Indians, the first team to qualify for the play-offs.
Shami has not played an ODI since the 2015 World Cup semi-final, and now slots in as the fifth pace-bowling option behind Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav and Hardik Pandya. It can be argued that two wickets in five IPL games is no great shakes, but Shami has had the selectors' faith ever since he returned to international cricket last July after a long gap.
BCCI
From the last ODI series India played - against England at home in January - Amit Mishra was dropped for Shami and Rohit back to open the innings with KL Rahul ruled out of the tournament as he recovers from shoulder surgery. While naming the squad, the chairman of selectors MSK Prasad stated that Ajinkya Rahane, who in the last 12 months has opened the innings six times each with returns 144 runs, is the other opening option for the Champions Trophy.
BCCL
Prasad said that the main players who were discussed at length for selection were Suresh Raina, Dinesh Karthik, Kuldeep Yadav, Rishabh Pant and Shardul Thakur, each of whom has been placed on standby for the tournament. The five players will train at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore after the IPL ends, and will have visas in place should the need arrive for any of them to fly to England.
ALSO READ: Shahid Afridi Takes A Potshot At Gautam Gambhir For Not Getting Over Their Infamous On-Field Spat
The squad was announced today at the BCCI headquarters following the board's SCG on Sunday, where it was unanimously decided that India would defend its title after weeks of speculation over the team staying out of the tournament owing to a financial dispute with the ICC. The deadline to name squads for the Champions Trophy was April 25, on which date the other seven countries revealed theirs, but the BCCI delayed announcing India's pool of players because of objections that a proposed ICC financial formulas would result in a loss of approximately $277 million from 2016 to 2023 to sports' richest board.
BCCL
The eight-team tournament will be played between June 1-18, with defending champions India pooled with South Africa, Pakistan and Sri Lanka in Group B. Kohli's team is scheduled to open its campaign on June 4 at Edgbaston against Pakistan, followed by matches with Sri Lanka on June 8 and South Africa on June 11, both at Kennington Oval.
Four years ago in 2013, an Indian team led by MS Dhoni lifted the Champions Trophy by beating hosts England.
India squad: Virat Kohli (capt), R Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah, Shikhar Dhawan, MS Dhoni (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Kedar Jadhav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Amit Mishra, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Ajinkya Rahane, Umesh Yadav, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammed Shami