NCA declared him fit, then why was Jasprit Bumrah out of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025?
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced its final team for the ICC Champions Trophy 2025. The last date for changes in the team is February 12 and in such a situation, the selectors led by Ajit Agarkar announced the team on Tuesday. Two changes have been made in it. India suffered a major setback in the form of Jasprit Bumrah. He has been ruled out of the tournament due to injury, while Yashasvi Jaiswal was also not given a place. Harshit Rana has been given a chance in place of Bumrah and Varun Chakraborty in place of Yashasvi. However, a report of news agency PTI has come out, according to which the NCA had declared Bumrah fit, but then what was the reason due to which Jasprit Bumrah was not included. The report also states that the final call regarding Bumrah has been taken by chief selector Agarkar. He also talked to coach Gautam Gambhir and captain Rohit Sharma for this.
The NCA had declared Jasprit Bumrah fit
The NCA examines two parameters of fitness before approving a player’s return to cricket. Jasprit Bumrah had earlier undergone back surgery in 2022 as well. Then it took him about 10 months to get fit and he made a comeback in 2023. However, now he has faced this problem again. He felt discomfort during the Sydney Test on the Australia tour. After this, he was asked to undergo five to six weeks of rehab at the NCA. During this time, strength and conditioning trainer Rajnikanth and physio Tulsi were also with him. A BCCI source told PTI, ‘In the report sent by NCA head Nitin Patel, Nitin had declared Bumrah medically fit after completing the rehabilitation. After this, the NCA’s Sports and Medical Science team left the responsibility of deciding on Bumrah’s selection to the selection committee led by Ajit Agarkar.
Discussion between Agarkar-Gambhir and Rohit
However, there were doubts whether he was fit to bowl before a big tournament like the ICC Champions Trophy 2025. When the ball was put in Agarkar’s court, he discussed the issue with captain Rohit Sharma and coach Gautam Gambhir in Ahmedabad. There was a debate among the three on whether it would be appropriate to take Jasprit Bumrah, who in their view is not fully fit. Or a new bowler like Harshit Rana should be selected who is fully fit, but if Bumrah is available then no one would want to miss the opportunity to include him in the team. However, the selectors did not want to take any kind of risk. In such a situation, it was agreed not to take an unfit player in the squad. Everyone believed that despite being declared fit, if the NCA is not able to tell whether he will be able to bowl fully in the entire tournament or not, then the risk should not be taken.
Jasprit Bumrah was also hurried in 2022
The source said, ‘There was a lot of risk and if Jasprit Bumrah gets injured again during a match, it would be a matter of complete embarrassment. The NCA led by Nitin Patel had earlier hurried Bumrah in 2022 as well and asked Bumrah to play in the bilateral series against Australia before the T20 World Cup 2022. This further aggravated Bumrah’s injury. The selection committee was then headed by Chetan Sharma. Therefore, Agarkar did not want to take any chances. It has also come to light that Bumrah has not started bowling with full strength yet and those who know about this say that it is very difficult to be match fit in such a short time.
Jasprit Bumrah can return to IPL
Instead, Bumrah should now return to the IPL for Mumbai Indians and then lead India in England as Rohit Sharma is unlikely to be selected for the Tests again. The selection committee has selected the fifth spinner in the team in the form of Varun Chakraborty, who has been included in the team for the T20 and ODI series against England. At the same time, opener Yashasvi Jaiswal was dropped because Rohit and Shubman Gill will open the innings. If needed, either Rishabh Pant or KL Rahul can open the innings.
Two KKR players
Yashasvi has, however, been kept in the traveling reserve in the Indian team. Along with him in the reserve are Shivam Dubey (Hardik’s backup) and Mohammed Siraj (Shami’s backup). Varun, who has been very successful in T20 Internationals, made his ODI debut in Cuttack on the basis of his T20 form and this KKR bowler is also a personal favorite bowler of head coach Gambhir. According to media reports, two players have been selected for the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 team on the basis of Gambhir’s recommendations. These include Harshit and Varun and coincidentally both of them are also part of the IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders.
India’s final squad for ICC Champions Trophy 2025
Rohit Sharma (captain), Shubman Gill (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wicketkeeper), Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Varun Chakravarthy.
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