Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Jasprit Bumrah will skip the India cricket team’s only preparatory event for the ICC Champions Trophy 2025. The star cricketers who have been in Australia since mid-November have been toiling hard to win the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2024-25 and ensure that Team India reaches the World Test Championship Final 2025.
According to SportsTak, to keep themselves injury-free and ready for the ICC Champions Trophy, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) might rest all three for the upcoming India vs England ODI series, which kicks off a month after the BGT ends.
Bumrah needed for ICC Champions Trophy
In 2024, Bumrah has bowled a whopping 386.4 overs (2300 balls) in international cricket. If we include the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024, in which Bumrah represented the Mumbai Indians, the number goes up to 349.3 overs (2611 balls). Given how important the pacer is, his fitness must be kept over everything else, and therefore resting him makes sense to ensure he’s fit for the ICC Champions Trophy.
Why Rohit Sharma & Virat Kohli should play India vs England ODIs
As for Rohit Sharma and Kohli, the BCCI selectors will have a chat with them to ask about their availability for the India vs England ODI series. Given they don’t have the same amount of workload as Bumrah, they might choose to play England at home.
One mustn’t forget that the batting star duo isn’t in great touch either. They have already retired from T20Is and don’t get to play as much international cricket as before. It’ll be in their and Team India’s best interest if they play against the Three Lions to better prepare for the ICC Champions Trophy.
India’s predicted squad for ICC Champions Trophy
Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Mohammed Shami (depending on fitness, otherwise Arshdeep Singh)
Traveling reserves: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Harshit Rana, Rinku Singh/Riyan Parag
