ICC Champions Trophy 2017: Rishabh Pant, Suresh Raina on India standby list

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the 15-man India squad for the ICC Champions Trophy 2017. The squad did not see a lot of surprise inclusions as the selectors opted to go with the tested combinations that played against England earlier this year. However, they have added a few players in the standby list for the tournament. The likes of Rishabh Pant and Suresh Raina have been named as the standby players.

In the team, Virat Kohli has been named as the captain and MS Dhoni will be the senior-most member of the team. There were speculations about the likes of Gautam Gambhir being considered for the opening slot but that did not happen. The selectors have opted to go with Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma as the openers. Much like Gambhir, other names were floating the media about the new inclusions in the list.

There was a lot of hype around wicket-keeper batsman Rishabh Pant prior to the announcement. Also, many believed that Dinesh Karthik, who was a part of the team in 2013 edition, must get another go. While these lads did not get a chance in the 15-man squad, the BCCI has announced a standby list of 5 players who were discussed during the board meeting.

MSK Prasad, the Chairman of Selectors, has noted that there were 5 members who were discussed briefly before picking up the squad. Considering their recent form, these five players have been picked in the standby list and their visas will also be applied. The five players are – Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav, Dinesh Karthik, Shardul Thakur, and Suresh Raina.

“Pant, Kuldeep, DK, Shardul Thakur, Suresh Raina were also discussed. Visas will be applied. They will be on standby,” said MSK Prasad.

India Squad for Champions Trophy:

Virat Kohli (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, MS Dhoni (wk), Yuvraj Singh, Kedar Jadhav, Hardik Pandya, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Manish Pandey.