The Indian squad for the upcoming Champions Trophy was announced earlier during the day, paving the way for the willow champs to jump into the Champion Trophy tournament and defend the cup.

Rohit Sharma, Mohammad Shami and R Ashwin have made a re-entry into the Indian One Day Cricket squad, while  Suresh Raina, a prominent face in the last Champions Trophy (2013) winning squad for the team is in the standby section, along with the likes of Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav, Shardul Thakur and Dinesh Karthik.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni will protect the stumps while Virat Kohli will lead the team.  Other members of squad include Shikhar Dhawan, Kedar Jadhav, Manish Pandey, Yuvraj Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Hardik Pandya, Bhuwneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Jaspreet Bumrah and Ajinkya Rahane.

The playoffs start in England with India taking on Pakistan on June 4.  The finals will be played on 18th June.  India took home the cup in the last tournament held in England.  Chairman of the selection committee has said that all players, including those in standby will be participating the the National Cricket Academy practice sessions.