Indian Cricket Team will be title defending champion in the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy beginning from 1 June in England. Virat Kohli to captain Men in Blue for the first time ever in a major International Cricket Council (ICC) event.

Injured KL Rahul out from the Indian roster. Doors have been opened once again for left handed opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan. Rohit Sharma will be making comeback in the Men in Blue side after fully recovered from injury. Mohammed Shami and Ravi Chandran Ashwin have also been named in 15-member team India.

Gautam Gambhir was in the race to be selected as the opener at the place of Rahul but selectors didn’t consider him. Selectors also talked about few players in the meeting. Some good performances in the on going IPLT20, forced selectors to have a thought about them. Pant, Kuldeep, Raina, Karthik and Shardul Thakur were the some of names discussed in the selection meeting.

Chief selector MSK Prasad said, “We considered Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav, Suresh Raina, Karthik & Shardul who are in our standby list for Champions Trophy.”

There were some doubts over MS Dhoni’s selection in the side as he is not in the form in current Indian Premier League season. Hence selector Prasad made big comment for Dhoni as he is the best wicket-keeper batsman in the world and apart from his batting, he can support a lot to skipper Kohli.

“We all believe MS Dhoni is best ‘keeper-batsman in the world. He’s a tremendous support to Virat Kohli.” MSK Prasad added.

Initially Manish Pandey was the part of original 15-man Indian squad but during a practice session in IPL 2017, he got injured. Hence Dinesh Karthik was named his replacement in the side to play in England.

Let’s have a look at the India’s roster for 2017 Cricket Champions Trophy.

Team India for Champions Trophy 2017

1. Virat Kohli (Captain)

2. Ajinkya Rahane

3. Rohit Sharma

4. MS Dhoni (Wicket-keeper)

5. Yuvraj Singh

6. Kedar Jadhav

7. Hardik Pandya

8. Ravindra Jadeja

9. Ravichandran Ashwin

10. Bhuvneshwar Kumar

11. Mohammad Shami

12. Umesh Yadav

13. Shikhar Dhawan

14. Jasprit Bumrah

15. Dinesh Karthik

Do you think India can retain champions trophy title? Will India win 2017 champions trophy?