ICC Champions Trophy: Jasprit Bumrah’s Absence Unlikely to Disrupt Team India’s Balance

The BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia has expressed confidence that Indian cricket team can win the ICC Champions Trophy despite Jasprit Bumrah's absence from the squad.

The selection committee, headed by Ajit Agarkar has appointed Harshit Rana to replace Bumrah.

Senior batters in India Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have been on a roll in recent times. Rohit made a century in the second ODI in England and Kohli scored a half-century in last ODI. India took both the ODI series 3-0, and the T20I series by 4-1.

"We have selected the top team to compete in this year's ICC Champions Trophy, and I think we can win the prize. India is a great team with a huge capacity bench, and I'm not sure they (Jasprit Bumrah's departure) could cause any significant problem with the team's combination," Saikia said.

"Everything can be said to be very good about the squad Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli getting back to their best; look at the England series results are right in front of you. The weather are expected to be similar in Dubai will be like Indian conditions. India have started in well with a whitewash of the series an ODI and a victory of 4-1 in the T20Is. The spirit and morale of the players is at high levels," Saikia added.

The Indian team will kick off the Champions Trophy campaign against Bangladesh in Dubai on the 20th of February. On February 23rd and March 2nd respectively, India will meet Pakistan. On that same date they will take on New Zealand.

Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul (wk), Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Mohd. Shami, Shreyas Iyer, Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh.