Champions Trophy: BCCI announces 15-man squad; no place for Raina, Harbhajan, Gambhir

New Delhi: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Monday announced the 15-man squad for upcoming ICC Champions Trophy to be held in England. The selectors did not pull off too many surprises and retained most of the players who played the limited-overs series against England in January this year.

Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina and Harbhajan Singh were three senior Indian players who failed to find place in the squad despite a good show in the ongoing season of Indian Premier League (IPL).

Here is India's 15-man squad:

Virat Kohli (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, MS Dhoni (wk), Yuvraj Singh, Kedar Jadhav, Hardik Pandya, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Manish Pandey

The Indian board announced the squad through its official Twitter account:

#CT #TeamIndia - Virat (C), Shikhar, Rohit, Rahane, MSD (wk), Yuvraj, Kedar, Hardik, Ashwin, Jadeja, Shami, Umesh, Bhuvi, Bumrah & Manish pic.twitter.com/pQOgpO9JNf

— BCCI (@BCCI) May 8, 2017

India are currently the defending champions. They defeated England in the 2013 edition.

After delaying the announcement due to an ongoing feud with International Cricket Council over a revenue sharing model, the board members finally came to a conclusion.

There were rumours that few members of the board in favour of pulling out of the prestigious tournament after the BCCI was crushed 1-13 at the ICC Board meeting recently where the proposed revenue model was put forth for a floor test.

This was after BCCI's share from ICC revenue was reduced from USD 570 million to USD 293 million.

Initially, BCCI was offered an additional USD 100 million by Manohar -- an offer which India rejected.

However, the ICC's offer still stands as it is ready to pay the additional USD 100 million. Manohar has apparently told BCCI officials in Dubai that if their general body is game for an additional USD 100 million, he would then get it ratified in a board meeting later this month.

The BCCI deliberately missed the April 25 deadline for submission of the squad in the wake of ICC proposing a new financial model which reduces BCCI's revenues from USD 570 million to USD 293 million.

More to follow...