Champions Trophy: BCCI announce 15-man India squad; Manish Pandey, Mohammed Shami return

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Monday announced the 15-man Indian squad, which will take part in the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy.

The squad is as follows: Virat Kohli (C), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), Yuvraj Singh, Kedar Jadhav, Hardik Pandya, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja,  Mohammad Shami, Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah & Manish Pandey.

The only surprise inclusion is that of Manish Pandey but considering his form it is not much of a wonder. Pandey has been performing consistently at the top-level and in the current IPL season has been in sublime form.

Meanwhile, the team announcement comes after the BCCI cleared the Indian team’s participation in the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy in its Special General Meeting on Sunday.

More than two weeks after missing the April 25 deadline set by the International Cricket Council (ICC) the BCCI finally revealed the squad which will defend its title this year. As expected Virat Kohli leads the side and looking to the future the BCCI went ahead with picking up Manish Pandey instead of Suresh Raina or Gautam Gambhir.