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Champions Trophy 2017: 15 picks, 5 standbys, 0 surprises

Shami, Rohit, Dhawan return in CT squad; selectors keep faith in Dhoni as Pant waits

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Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma (background) will be back to open the batting for India in the Champions Trophy in England
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For the first time in history, the senior selection panel finalised 20 names despite being asked to pick just 15 when it sat down to choose the squad for the upcoming Champions Trophy in England.

The three wise men of Indian cricket --- MSK Prasad, Devang Gandhi and Sarandeep Singh --- had valid reasons to do so.

One, the domestic performances of Rishabh Pant, Dinesh Karthik, left-arm chinaman Kuldeep Yadav and fast bowler Shardul Thakur from Mumbai were too strong to ignore along with the experience of veteran middle-order Suresh Raina. These five were named as standbys apart from the 15-member squad for the marquee event.

Two, there still remains a cloud of uncertainty over the fitness of some of the key players like Mohammed Shami and Rohit Sharma after being struck with injuries in the recent past. Shami has not played an ODI since being overused by the then skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni during 2015 World Cup, while Sharma is making a return after more than four months due to a thigh surgery.

MS Dhoni, who has been hot and cold in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) and is facing stiff competition from the young Pant, found a strong backer in the chairman of the selection committee.

"He is a key batsman in crunch situations. I cannot remember even a single day in the last 10 to 12 years when Dhoni was bad behind the stumps," Prasad said.

The 19-year-old Pant's 972 runs at an average of 81 to go with an impressive strike rate of 107 in the 2016-17 Ranji Trophy season, thus, have earned him only a standby spot.

The selectors agreed to send passports of all the 20 players in order to procure a United Kingdom visa, with an instructions for the five on standby that "they should be training at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru in order to be match fit for any eventuality".

India will defend their title in England under Virat Kohli's captaincy with just two spinners. And one out of them, Ravichandran Ashwin, has no performances to show post recovering from a sports hernia after India's Test series against Australia ended two months ago.

That's the reason Yuvraj Singh has also been kept in the all-rounder's slot to help the only fit spinner, Ravindra Jadeja. Hardik Pandya occupies the place of a regular all-rounder.

The Indian selectors did not discuss the names of other two hopefuls, Gautam Gambhir and Harbhajan Singh, despite their solid showing in the IPL so far.

Opener KL Rahul was also not considered as he has failed to recover from the shoulder injury that he suffered during Australia series. Shikhar Dhawan is the biggest beneficiary of this opportunity along with Ajinkya Rahane, who has been picked for his consistency during the last tour to England.

Kedar Jadhav has also retained his place on the basis of his 232 runs in three innings against England in the ODI at home earlier this year, while Manish Pandey completes the batting line-up.

Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar will form the pace attack with Shami.

India start their title defence against Pakistan on June 4 at Edgbaston, followed by battles against Sri Lanka on June 8 and South Africa on June 11 at The Oval.

SQUAD FOR CHAMPIONS TROPHY

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

STANDBYS
Suresh Raina, Rishabh Pant, Dinesh Karthik, Kuldeep Yadav, Shardul Thakur

INDIA'S CT FIXTURES

June 4: vs Pakistan, Edgbaston
June 8: vs Sri Lanka, The Oval
June 11: vs South Africa, The Oval

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