New Delhi
Champions Trophy 2025: India is all set for the Champions Trophy 2025 starting from February 19 in Pakistan and UAE. Amid much speculation, BCCI may delay the announcement of the Indian squad for the Champions Trophy and the upcoming three-match ODI series against England. India will play three ODIs and five T20I matches against England. The ODI series will be important for the preparation for the Champions Trophy. Earlier it was expected that the Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee would announce the squad for the Champions Trophy by January 12 as per the ICC guidelines. But now BCCI will request to extend the deadline.
On the other hand, the squad for the upcoming five-match T20I series against England may be announced in the next few days.
Before every global tournament, the ICC usually asks participating teams to submit a provisional squad at least a month in advance, with permission to make changes later.
However, this time ICC asked for the team five weeks before the start of the tournament. BCCI has asked for more time due to the recently concluded Test series in Australia.
It is likely that India’s Champions Trophy squad, consisting mostly of players from the home ODI series against England, will be announced about a week later, around January 18-19.
A good news for India is that fast bowler Mohammed Shami is ready to return to the Indian team after more than a year.
He could make it to the ODI squad against England and the upcoming Champions Trophy squad. He recently played for Bengal in the Vijay Hazare domestic one-day competition.
He last played for India in the ODI World Cup held in India in October-November, 2023.
