India pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah has been ruled out of the squad for the ICC Men’s Champions Trophy 2025, the BCCI announced on Tuesday. He will be replaced by Harshit Rana for the mega event starting February 19 in Pakistan.
This caps speculations about whether the pacer would be back in the team, since he was in Bengaluru recently at the BCCI's Centre of Excellence (previously, National Cricket Academy) to undergo rehabilitation there, after his five-week off-loading.
Bumrah, reportedly, had a scan of his back there, following which the Board’s medical staff discussed with the selectors and the Indian team management. The pacer was included in the provisional 15-man squad for the Champions Trophy, which was announced on January 18.
It was reportedly chief selector Ajit Agarkar who took the final call to exclude him from the team. Bumrah, who has already undergone lower back surgery in 2022, sustained another stress-related injury while bowling in the final Test against Australia in Sydney.
Though NCA head Nitin Patel had given a report stating Bumrah's scan reports looked fine and that had completed his rehabilitation, doubts remained on whether he would be bowling fit by the time the tournament started, anunnamed BCCI source told PTI.
Adding that the selector didn't want to take any risks, he said Patel left the decision to Agarkar. "Nitin left the ball in Ajit's (chief selector Agarkar) court and hence no one would want to stick their necks out and take the risk of putting an unfit player in the squad. If the medical team doesn't green-light fully, how can the selection committee take that risk," the
official said.
Agarkar met with head coach Gautam Gambhir and captain Rohit Sharma in Ahmedabad and discussed whether to take unfit Bumrah in or go for Rana. However, Agarkar didn't want to take a chance. "The stakes are too high and it would have been a complete embarrassment had Bumrah broken down in a match. The NCA led by Nitin Patel had once burnt their hands in 2022 when they pushed Bumrah for the bilateral series against Australia before the T20 World Cup and he had broken down to be out for one year. "That was Chetan Sharma's committee and so Agarkar didn't want to take a chance," the source added.
The selectors were worried that Bumrah was yet to start bowling full tilt and those in the know of things said that it is very difficult to get match-fit in such a short time.
While Bumrah missed out the white-ball series against England because of the injury, Siraj was dropped in favour of Rana in the bilateral series. While Rana has been among the wickets against England, he has been expensive.
The return of Mohammed Shami, however, has bolstered the Indian pace attack.
India are in Group A along with Pakistan, Bangladesh and New Zealand. They will play all their matches in Dubai (hybrid format) after the BCCI chose not to send the team to the host country, Pakistan, because of security concerns. India will open their campaign against Bangladesh on February 20, play Pakistan on February 23 and New Zealand on March 2.