ICC Champions Trophy: Dinesh Karthik replaces injured Manish Pandey in India squad

New Delhi: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Thursday confirmed Dinesh Karthik as the replacement for injured Manish Pandey in the Team India squad for ICC Champions Trophy, which starts on June 1.

The Tamil Nadu wicketkeeper-batsman had last played for India in the Asia Cup match against Afghanistan in 2014. The 31-year-old showed his class in Gujarat Lions' otherwise ill-fated Indian Premier League campaign, scoring 361 runs in 14 games at an average of 36.10 and a strike rate of 139.38.

Besides, Karthik scored heavily in domestic circuit, and won Man of the Match awards in the final of both the Vijay Hazare and Deodhar Trophy. He scored hundreds on both the finals.

He was named as one of the standby players along with Suresh Raina, Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav and Shardul Thakur when the Indian team for Champions Trophy was announced last week.

NEWS ALERT: @DineshKarthik to replace injured Manish Pandey in the Indian team for Champions Trophy #TeamIndia pic.twitter.com/puFZCx5QJN

— BCCI (@BCCI) May 18, 2017

Pandey, 27, suffered a side strain during the Kolkata Knight Riders' practice session on the eve of their IPL 2017 Eliminator against Sunrisers Hyderabad yesterday.

He last played for India in the second T20I against England in January earlier this year.

Virat Kohli & Co start their title defence on June 4 against arch-rivals Pakistan at Edgbaston. Then, they take on Sri Lanka on June 8 and South Africa on June 11 in Group B.

India will play two warm-up games against New Zealand and Bangladesh on May 28 and May 30.

Here's India squad:

Virat Kohli (C), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), Yuvraj Singh, Kedar Jadhav, Hardik Pandya, R Ashwin, R Jadeja, Mohammad Shami, Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah and Dinesh Karthik