The Champions Trophy 2025 is coming up in two weeks and teams are looking to finalise their squads with late changes, owing to injuries or form.
Eight of the best ranked teams in the world are set to compete in the Champions Trophy 2025, starting February 19 and to be held in Pakistan and the UAE. Ahead of the tournament, some teams have been dealt with huge injury blows while some are contemplating changes to their squad based on form.
Teams can tweak their squad freely until February 11, after which they would need approval from the technical committee. Here we take a look at four changes expected in the Champions Trophy squads.
India’s mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy, who ran circles around England in the recent T20I series, could force his way into the main squad for the tournament. He picked up 14 wickets from five games and was adjudged the player of the series.
Chakravarthy was then added to the ODI side for the three-match series against England. If he manages to impress the head coach Gautam Gambhir, Chakravarthy could replace one of Axar Patel or Washington Sundar in the 15-member squad.
The 33-year old is yet to make his ODI debut but has a magnificent List A record. Chakravarthy has 59 wickets from 23 games at 14.13 runs apiece while conceding at 4.28.
The semi-finalists of the 2023 ODI World Cup South Africa are yet to find a replacement for Anrich Nortje, who was ruled out of the upcoming ICC event due to back injury. This marks the sixth consecutive ICC fifty-over tournament Nortje has missed with an injury.
The Proteas are facing a pace pandemic with several of their fast bowlers dealing with fitness issues. Gerald Coetzee was set to be announced as the replacement but was forced to miss the SA20 due to a hamstring injury after one game. Lizaad Williams and Nandre Burger were also sidelined before the SA20 season began. Sunrisers Eastern Cape seamer Ottneil Baartman also missed a few games in the second half of the SA20.
South Africa have announced the squad for the first ODI of the tri-series against Pakistan and New Zealand, with Junior Dala, Eathan Bosch, and Gideon Peters set to jostle for the Nortje replacement. Coetzee was named in the squad but was ruled out a couple of hours later.
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Australia will have to reshuffle their bowling unit after recent reports indicating that their pace duo of Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood is set to be ruled out of the Champions Trophy. Captain Cummins hasn’t fully recovered from an ankle injury he sustained during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy while Hazlewood is dealing with a hip issue.
This would be a massive setback for the Aussies as the duo has been an integral part of their bowling attack. Among the likely replacement options, they have Spencer Johnson, Xavier Bartlett, Sean Abbott, Jason Behrendorff, Scott Boland and Riley Meredith.
Johnson is the front-runner, given his recent form in the BBL and the fact that he was due to join the ODI squad in Sri Lanka as a cover. Behrendorff and Meredith also had impressive BBL campaigns.
Earlier, Australia all-rounder Mitchell Marsh was ruled out of the Champions Trophy 2025 due to back injury. Marsh, who was dropped after four Tests against India, has been a key member of the ODI side in the top order for a couple of years.
With Marsh as well as Cameron Green out of the picture, Australia need to find another replacement. In Marcus Stoinis and Aaron Hardie, they had two seam bowling all-rounders in the squad. However, with Stoinis announcing his ODI retirement out of the blue, Australia desperately need a seam all-rounder.
Jake Fraser-McGurk is set to be named as the replacement of Marsh as a pure batter while Beau Webster could be in line to make his ODI debut soon.
The hosts are expected to make a late change to their squad for the Champions Trophy, in a bid to another spin option. Middle order batter Tayyab Tahir could face the brunt of it as Pakistan look to bring in Sufiyan Muqeem.
Muqeem, the 25-year-old left-arm wrist spinner, played one ODI in December, where he claimed 4 for 52 against South Africa. Pakistan currently have four spin options in the squad in Abrar Ahmed, Salman Agha, Khushdil Shah and Kamran Ghulam. Adding left-arm wrist spin to the mix will offer them great variety.
