As India gears up for the Champions Trophy in July, it is worth noting that the tea is defending its trophy it won back in 2013. That team was brilliant and managed to win a final where they had made only 129 runs in 20 overs. Some players are still present today but there are some who will not feature in the tournament:
Ishant Sharma
The man who created the turning point in the final back then, Ishant Sharma will not feature this year. The Indian team has selected Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav and Mohammad Shami to lead the fast bowling unit which means that Ishant will have to miss out.
Ishant is however a mainstay in the Test team but he will be disappointed to have missed out this time around.
Vinay Kumar
Another fast bowler who will miss out this year is Vinay Kumar. The Karnataka pacer had been picked back then due to his ability to pick up wickets at regular intervals albeit with a high economy rate. Kumar did not play in the 2013 edition for the team but was part of the squad that went on to win the trophy.
Irfan Pathan
Another back-up bowler back in 2013, Irfan Pathan too did not feature for the squad in the tournament. He has lost the extra bit of pace that he had in his initial days and is certainly not going to be featuring any time soon for the Indian squad.
Amit Mishra
Mishra was part of the warm-up squad back in 2013 thanks to a decent IPL with the Sunrisers Hyderabad. However, with the team management deciding to play with Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, he missed out back then and will miss out this year too.
Murali Vijay
The Test mainstay has not been very successful in limited overs cricket and he did miss out back in 2013 and was replaced by a brilliant Rohit Sharma. He is regarded as an excellent test batsman and has not been part of the limited overs squad for a very long time.
Dinesh Karthik
He was in excellent form in the 2013 warm-ups but managed just one fifty against the West Indies. Karthik has not been able to find a spot in this year’s IPL. He has been placed in the stand-by squad and will bide his time for a spot.
Suresh Raina
At one point, Raina was a constant in the limited over scheme of things but that has all changed. He hasn’t been able to find a spot in the 15-man squad and his weakness against the short ball has been documented well. He will have to wait for a while before making it to the squad again.
By Rohit Nair
