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Indian captain Rohit Sharma has opened up on star Indian pacer Mohammed Siraj missing out on the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy 2025, scheduled to start on February 19 in Pakistan and UAE.
Notably, Siraj has been a mainstay in the ODI format. However, he has been axed out of the squad while Arshdeep Singh has been selected ahead of the Hyderabadi pacer.
Addressing Siraj’s omission, Rohit stated that the Indian team management wanted someone to share both the new ball and in the death overs. For the same reason, Rohit and co. had to go with Arshdeep ahead of Siraj.
“We wanted to pick a squad where we have options of both somebody to bowl with the new ball and somebody to bowl at the back end. Obviously, with Bumrah missing, we’re not sure. We wanted Arshdeep to come and play that role of bowling at the back end, and Shami, obviously, we saw what he did with the new ball, and that is where we feel that Siraj’s effectiveness comes down a little bit—if he’s not going to take the new ball," Rohit stated in the press conference.
Interestingly, the Indian squad for the Champions Trophy 2025 has only three seamers. Speaking on the same, Rohit stated that he wanted more on all-rounders to be available throughout the campaign.
“We discussed it at length, and we are only taking three seamers there because we wanted all the all-rounders (to be available) with us. It’s an unfortunate thing that he (Siraj) has to miss out, but we had no option but to get the guys who can perform a certain role. I personally feel that we have guys who can bowl with the new ball and be effective in the middle and then effective at the back end, so you need to cover all three facets of the game. With these three boys, I think we can do that," he added.
India’s squad for the ICC Champions Trophy 2025:
Rohit Sharma (c), Virat Kohli, Shuman Gill (vc), Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja.
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