Mumbai: Opener Gautam Gambhir and 2011 World Cup hero Yuvraj Singh, who made a fairytale comeback after recuperating from cancer last year, have been left out of the 15-member Indian squad for the ICC Champions Trophy which begins from June 6 in England. The BCCI announced the team here on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Shikhar Dhawan and Vinay Kumar have made to the final cut for the 15-men squad while the selectors headed by Sandip Patil gave a clear indication that it will take some more time for Gautam Gambhir to get back into Indian outfit.
However Murali Vijay, who scored couple of centuries against Australia in the Test series earlier this year, has been given a chance in this squad led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni. The selection committee has taken IPL form too into consideration as Dinesh Karthik makes a comeback into the team after a gap of near three years. Meanwhile Rohit Sharma has also made it to this squad. Both the batsmen are the highest run-getters for Mumbai Indians in this edition of IPL.
India and South Africa will play the inaugural match of ICC Champions Trophy on June 6 at the Sophia Gardens at Cardiff, Wales in a Group B match. In next match, India will face off West Indies at the Kennington Oval in London on June 11 and then conclude the opening round of this 8 Nation-tournament on June 15 against arch-rivals Pakistan at Edgbaston, Birmingham.
India's 15-man squad for ICC Champions Trophy:
MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan, Murali Vijay, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Karthik, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, R Vinay Kumar, Irfan Pathan, Ishant Sharma, Amit Mishra, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav.
By ISN