Such is the depth of Indian cricket that former England captain Michael Vaughan reckons that India’s unselected side would have managed to lift the ICC Champions Trophy 2025. The Men in Blue had many stalwarts in the team. It meant that players like Arshdeep Singh, Rishabh Pant, and Washington Sundar didn’t even get to play a match in Dubai despite being part of the squad.
India ‘A’ would have won the ICC Champions Trophy
Vaughan thinks that had Team India fielded an XI that consisted of players who didn’t feature in the ICC Champions Trophy, the title would have still been theirs. He mentioned the likes of Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhishek Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Yuzvendra Chahal, and Ravi Bishnoi. Not to forget that Jasprit Bumrah wasn’t fit for the tournament.
This list is already pretty incredible. Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan, Tilak Varma, Karun Nair, Shivam Dube, Riyan Parag, R Sai Kishore, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan, Ravi Bishnoi, and Dhruv Jurel are other players who could still make the team.
Many of these players would make the first XI of other teams. Someone like Jaiswal would start immediately for Pakistan, who didn’t have Saim Ayub or Fakhar Zaman. Pant would keep wickets for Bangladesh, Afghanistan, England, and maybe even New Zealand.
Teams hardly have one good all-rounder, while Team India has Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, and Washington Sundar in the main squad. You can add Nitish Reddy, Parag, and Dube as well to the list. Pacers weren’t even needed in Dubai; that’s why Arshdeep didn’t get to play and Siraj, Prasidh, or Avesh weren’t even required.
India squad for ICC Champions Trophy 2025
Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill (vc), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, KL Rahul (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Harshit Rana, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Washington Sundar, Varun Chakravarthy, Arshdeep Singh
