We are halfway through the IPL and the Champions Trophy has already started creeping in in the form of news and team squads. South Africa, Australia, England, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan have already announced their squads for the tournament scheduled to start on the 1st June, 2017 and conclude with the final on 18th June, 2017.

Seven out of the eight participating Teams have already announced their respective squads and thus, it’s only Team India that’s yet announce their squad for the tournament that’s often referred to as the mini-World Cup. While the BCCI’s announcement of the squad could just be around the corner, we come up with our predictions of the squad, players we believe will be on board the flight to England. It’s definitely going to be a tough one.
English pitches have traditionally backed fast bowling. We see a lot of support for late swing and lateral movement off the pitch. In line with this, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Jaspreet Bumrah and Ishant Sharma will definitely make it to the fifteen-man squad, though all of them most certainly won’t feature in the same game. Shami has been injured and we aren’t too sure about his availability; same goes for KL Rahul.
As far as spin is concerned, there hasn’t been too much in there for spinners, and hence, no one apart from Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja will make the cut.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni is sure to be the wicket-keeper/batsman choice for the Virat Kohli-led Team. Ajinkya Rahane, even if he has had an ordinary home season, will make the cut as the middle-order batsman; so will Yuvraj Singh, who recently rolled back the years with a luciferos hundred. Rohit Sharma, who is slowly getting back to his own in the IPL after a long hiatus because of an injury, will be one of the regular openers. Kedar Jadhav is sure to make the cut as a middle order batsman, following his outstanding performances in ODIs against England. Hardik Pandya will be in as an all-round option and might get every game India plays.

The red-hot form that Gautam Gambhir has been in might just work in his favour and the selectors might think of trying him out one last time. Shikhar Dhawan’s batting style is more suited on England pitches, where you’ve got to play a lot more horizontally, which is what Dhawan’s natural style is. We won’t be surprised if Dhawan makes it to the final fifteen.

PREDICTED INDIA SQUAD :

1. Virat Kolhi. (c)
2. Rohit Sharma.
3. Mahendra Singh Dhoni. (Wicket-Keeper)
4. Yuvraj Singh.
5. Ajinkya Rahane.
6. Hardik Pandya.
7. Kedar Jadhav.
8. Gautam Gambhir.
9. Shikhar Dhawan.
10. Ravichandran Ashwin.
11. Ravindra Jadeja.
12. Bhuvaneshwar Kumar.
13. Ishant Sharma.
14. Umesh Yadav.
15. Jaspreet Bumrah.