On Saturday, January 18, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the strong Indian national cricket team squad for the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy and ODIs in England.
The Indian national cricket team will be led by captain Rohit Sharma in the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy and England ODI series, with Shubman Gill serving as an alternate.
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The ICC Champions Trophy will be played in a hybrid model
The ICC Champions Trophy 2025 is all set to be played in a hybrid model with matches to be played across Pakistan and the UAE. Pakistan was the original host of the competition, but due to the Indian government’s refusal to send a team to the country, a hybrid model was adopted.
The Pakistan Cricket Board and the Board of Control for Cricket in India were involved in a major spat, which caused a major delay in the announcement of the Champions Trophy schedule.
The PCB was reluctant to accept the hybrid model and made several demands which were rejected by the BCCI. However, there were several meetings between the board members and the ICC, and finally things were settled with the announcement of the schedule on 24 December.
The acceptance of the neutral venue deal for the Champions Trophy was made after the PCB and BCCI mutually agreed that all matches between India and Pakistan hosted by either country in ICC events during the 2024-2027 cycle will be played at a neutral venue.
Additionally, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has been awarded the hosting rights for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in 2028, which will see the same hybrid model applied.
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BCCI announced India squad for ICC Champions Trophy
Rohit Sharma will lead the Indian national cricket team in the Champions Trophy and Shubman Gill will be his deputy. In the batting department, Rohit will have the support of modern great Virat Kohli as well as Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant and Yashasvi Jaiswal.
Hardik Pandya, along with Axar Patel, Washington Sundar and Ravindra Jadeja, will provide balance to the team with their all-round skills. And on the bowling front, Jasprit Bumrah will lead the attack consisting of Mohammed Shami and Arshdeep Singh. Namely, Bumrah is still a question mark for the Champions Trophy.
Meanwhile, India will play all their matches at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium in the 8-team tournament which will be held from February 19 to March 9.
The men in blue will open their campaign against Bangladesh on February 20 and then play a high-voltage clash against arch-rivals Pakistan on February 23. Their final group stage game will be against New Zealand on March 2 and if they progress, they will play Semi-Final 1 on March 4. The final will be played on March 9 in Lahore, unless India qualify, in which case it will be played in Dubai.
This is India’s ICC Champions Trophy 2025 squad:
Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill (VC), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja , Harshit Rana (England ODIs only).
