Kohli To Lead Team India To Champions Trophy; Raina, Pant Among Stand-Bys  

New Delhi: The BCCI has chosen to include experienced skipper — Ajinkya Rahane instead of experimenting on youngster Rishab Pant for the Champions Trophy that is scheduled to start from June 1 in England. Virat Kohli will lead the team.

Even though, Rishab Pant has proved his mettle with brilliant performance in the present season of IPL, the BCCI selection committee seems to have not been impressed.

Announcing the squad for the tournament on Monday, BCCI selection committee chairman MSK Prasad said Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav, Shardul Thakur, Suresh Raina and Dinesh Karthik are the stand-by players and will be issued visas.

"The stand-by players will be issued visas and will practise at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru," said Prasad. The Virat Kohli-led squad has no surprises with off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and pacer Mohammed Shami making it back to the team after their respective injury lay offs.

India will start their Champions Trophy campaign against arch-rivals Pakistan on June 4. Squad: Virat Kohli (Captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (WK), Yuvraj Singh, Kedar Jadhav, Hardik Pandya, Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Manish Pandey, Mohammed Shami, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah, Ajinkya Rahane Stand-bys: Rishabh Pant, Suresh Raina, Kuldeep Yadav, Shardul Thakur, Dinesh Karthik. — IANS.