On Saturday, India announced their 15-member squad for the 2025 Champions Trophy after a long wait as captain Rohit Sharma and chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar were involved in a lengthy meeting before the press conference.

Apart from the usual suspects in Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, the squad features four spin-bowling options, three of whom can bat providing more depth to the batting, as well as the left-handed batting duo of Rishabh Pant and Yashasvi Jaiswal. Siraj, however, has been dropped.

Siraj has been a mainstay in India’s bowling line-up across formats over the last three years, particularly in ODIs, but was ignored from the 15-member squad with the management favouring Arshdeep Singh as the third seamer instead.

Siraj's ODI dominance

The Hyderabad-born fast bowler has taken 47 wickets in ODIs since the start of 2023 which included an impressive 2023 World Cup campaign where he picked 14 wickets in 11 matches at an economy rate of 5.68.

Since the start of 2022, Siraj has taken 71 ODI wickets, the third most in the format after Adam Zampa who has proven to be undroppable from Australia’s white-ball squads.

Why then, has he been overlooked for the second-biggest tournament in the format after the World Cup?

Rohit: Siraj's effectiveness dependent on new ball

Rohit Sharma explained the reason behind preferring Arshdeep over Siraj. He said that the selectors had a look at all facets of the game and given the clouds over Jasprit Bumrah’s fitness, they felt the team required bowlers who could do an all-round job with the ball in hand across various phases.

“We wanted to pick a squad where we have options of both - somebody to bowl with the new ball and at the back end," Rohit said. "Obviously, with Bumrah missing, or not sure, we wanted Arshdeep to come and play that role of bowling at the back end.

“Shami, we saw what he did with the new ball (at the World Cup) and that is where we feel Siraj's effectiveness comes down if he is not taking the new ball and with Arshdeep and Shami in the squad, we had no option but to select guys who can fulfill all three facets of bowling: bowling at the start, in the middle, and at the death."

The Champions Trophy will commence on February 19 in Karachi while India’s first match will be played on February 20 against Bangladesh in Dubai, followed by matches against Pakistan and New Zealand on February 23 and March 2 respectively.

India’s squad for the 2025 Champions Trophy

Batters

Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer

Wicket-keepers

KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant

All-Rounders

Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar

Bowlers

Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Shami, Arshdeep Singh

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