'The stakes are too high and it would have been a complete embarrassment had Bumrah broken down in a match.'
India's pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah has been ruled out of the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy due to a lower back injury, the BCCI said on Tuesday, putting to rest all the speculation over his participation in the premier tournament.
The senior men's team selection committee has named Harshit Rana as Bumrah's replacement for the mega event, starting February 19 in Pakistan. India will open their campaign against Bangladesh in Dubai on February 20.
Bumrah, who has already undergone a lower back surgery in 2022, sustained another stress-related injury while bowling in the final Test against Australia at Sydney, where he pulled out after sending down 10 overs in the first innings.
"Bumrah was asked to off-load for five weeks after which his rehabilitation at NCA happened under strength & conditioning trainer Rajnikanth and physio Thulasi.
"The report sent by NCA head Nitin Patel clearly states that while he has completed his rehabilitation and scan reports seemed to be okay, it couldn't be concluded that whether he would be bowling fit by the time the tournament starts. Hence the selectors didn't take any risk," a top BCCI source told PTI.
"Nitin left the ball in Ajit's (chief selector Agarkar) court and hence no one would want to stick their necks out and take the risk of putting an unfit player in squad. If medical team doesn't green-light fully, how can the selection committee take that risk," the official said.
During a meeting between the chairman of selector Agarkar, head coach Gautam Gambhir and captain Rohit Sharma in Ahmedabad, it was deliberated whether they would take an unfit Bumrah to the Champions Trophy or go for the inexperienced Rana.
"The stakes are too high and it would have been a complete embarrassment had Bumrah broken down in a match. The NCA led by Nitin Patel had once burnt their hands in 2022 when they pushed Bumrah for the bilateral series against Australia before the T20 World Cup and he had broken down to be out for one year.
"That was Chetan Sharma's committee and so Agarkar didn't want to take a chance."
It is understood that the main bone of contention was that Bumrah is yet to start bowling full tilt and those in the know of things said that it is very difficult to get match-fit in such a short time.
Rather, he can come back for Mumbai Indians in IPL 2025 and then captain India during the Test series in England as Rohit Sharma is unlikely to be picked for Tests again.
However, the selection committee picked a fifth spinner in the squad in Varun Chakravarthy, who was also added for the England series. The fall guy this time was young opener Yashasvi Jaiswal, who wouldn't be finding a place in the playing XI with Rohit and Shubman Gill opening the innings.
Jaiswal is among the non-travelling reserves along with Shivam Dube (like-for-like for Hardik Pandya) and Mohammed Siraj (like-for-like for Mohammed Shami).
Chakravarthy, who has been very successful in T20Is, made his ODI debut in Cuttack based on his T20 form and the KKR bowler is a personal favourite of head coach Gambhir.
Two picks in this Champions Trophy squad are based on Gambhir's recommendations -- Rana and Chakravarthy -- both of whom coincidentally are also part of Kolkata Knight Riders.
India's squad for Champions Trophy: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, K L Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Mohd. Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Varun Chakaravarthy.
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