Champions Trophy 2025: 2 bowlers the reason behind India's delay in squad announcement - Report

Kuldeep Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah are the reason behind India's squad announcement delay.

Champions Trophy 2025: South Africa, Australia, Bangladesh, New Zealand, England and Afghanistan have all announced their squads for the upcoming Champions Trophy 2025. Only India and Pakistan are yet to reveal their squad for the tournament which begins on February 19. Earlier, it was reported that BCCI asked for an extension to ICC as the deadline to announce the squad was January 12 and now it has come to light that two bowlers are the reason behind India's delay in announcing the squad. The two bowlers are Jasprit Bumrah and Kuldeep Yadav who are currently getting their injuries assessed.

Head coach Gautam Gambhir, captain Rohit Sharma and chief selector Ajit Agarkar met on Saturday in Mumbai for the BCCI review meeting in order to pick the squad for CT but a report from Dainik Jagran suggests that there is confusion over Kuldeep and Bumrah's fitness.

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However, it added that an ICC source confirmed to the national daily that "all cricket boards had to send their preliminary teams by midnight of January 12."

The preliminary team list is sent to the ICC in advance to facilitate hospitality arrangements and visa processing. However, teams will have the opportunity to modify their provisional squads until February 13.

Also Read - Champions Trophy 2025 full squads: List of players confirmed so far

Earlier, an Indian Express report suggested that Bumrah is likely to miss India's group stage games of the 2025 Champions Trophy. The Men in Blue will begin their campaign against Bangladesh on February 20 in Dubai and then face arch-rivals Pakistan on February 23. India's third and final league stage game of Group A will take place against New Zealand on March 2 at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. The reported added that Bumrah will get fit until the knockout stage of the tournament as he is facing some injury issues with his back. According to a BCCI source, Bumrah is expected to be fully fit only by the first week of March.

"He (Bumrah) will be going to NCA for his rehabilitation. The initial report says he doesn’t have a fracture but has swelling on his back. So the NCA will monitor his recovery, and he will be there for three weeks. But even after that, he will have to play a match or two, even if they are practice games organised to check his match fitness," said the source.