Five SURPRISING EXCLUSIONS from India’s Champions Trophy squad

The Champions Trophy squad for the Indian team has been announced earlier today and it has raised quite a few eyebrows. While the team looks good on paper, it is one of the weakest teams in the Champions Trophy this year if we consider form and fitness. Ashwin will be coming off a sports hernia injury. Ravindra  Jadeja, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane and skipper Virat Kohli have all been woefully out of form. Shikhar Dhawan’s inclusion is the most shocking as he has been consistently inconsistent ever since the last Champions Trophy in 2013. Here we look at Five SURPRISING EXCLUSIONS from India’s Champions Trophy squad.

5) DINESH KARTHIK

Dinesh Karthik is someone who has always been an ‘almost there’ man of Indian cricket. He was about to become a permanent wicket keeper before MS Dhoni stormed the international scene in 2003. Fast forward to 2013 and Karthik made a spectacular comeback into the Champions Trophy team on the back of some brilliant performances in the IPL and the domestic season. He failed to cement his position as a pure batsman and has been out of the team ever since.

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However, this time around, in spite of good performance in the Ranji season and also, in the IPL where  he has scored 321 runs in 12 matches at an average of over 40 and a strike rate of 139.56 with 2 crucial 50s. He could have been given a spot in the team as a backup for MS Dhoni so that Kedar Jadhav could play as a spinning all-rounder in case of an injury to Dhoni.

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Aakash Verma