Mumbai, Feb 15: The India senior men’s cricket team, led by opener Rohit Sharma, have departed for Dubai from Mumbai to participate in the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy, starting from February 19.

All Group A matches of the Indian team will be held at the Dubai International Stadium, while the rest of the games will take place in Pakistan. Visuals from the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai showed Rohit & Co, along with the support staff, checking into the airport to take their flight to Dubai.

IANS understands that the initial plan for the team was to leave in batches of two for Dubai, but with the BCCI policy guidelines issued last month saying that the team will travel together for its abroad tours, it was decided for the side to leave together for the eight-team competition from Mumbai.

In the Champions Trophy, India will be significantly missing the services of its fast-bowling spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, who is recovering from a lower back injury sustained during the fifth Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test in Sydney last month.

Fast-bowling all-rounder Harshit Rana has been named his replacement while wrist-spinner Varun Chakaravarthy was also included at the expense of Yashasvi Jaiswal, who was originally in the provisional team. Jaiswal is now one of the non-travelling substitutes alongside Mohammed Siraj and Shivam Dube.

India, the two-time Champions Trophy winners, will begin their 2025 campaign against Bangladesh on February 20, before taking on Pakistan in a highly-anticipated clash on February 23. India will play their final Group A match against New Zealand on March 2.

India’s squad for the ICC Champions Trophy: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Mohammad Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Varun Chakravarthy. (IANS)

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