‘It shouldn’t matter’: Former speedster on India’s Jasprit Bumrah setback for ICC Champions Trophy 2025

The unavailability of Jasprit Bumrah should not bother the Indian team in the upcoming Champions Trophy 2025, opined former pacer Venkatesh Prasad. The 31-year-old Jasprit Bumrah, who suffered a back injury during the fifth Test against Australia last month, was ruled out of the mega event on Tuesday, thus giving a major setback to Rohit Sharma’s troops for the ICC event, that starts on February 19.

With no Jasprit Bumrah, the BCCI named three-ODI-old Harshit Rana as his replacement for the Champions Trophy 2025. For any team in the world the absence of someone like Jasprit Bumrah’s stature is a huge loss, especially when it’s an ICC event.

Venkatesh Prasad admitted losing Jasprit Bumrah is huge for India, but stated ‘it shouldn’t matter’ for the Men in Blue. “It shouldn’t matter (Jasprit Bumrah’s unavailability),” Venkatesh Prasad said on the sidelines of One World One Family Cup 2025 in Bengaluru.

Instead, the 55-year-old urged the entire team to shoulder the responsibility. “When you know that someone is not available, you need to shoulder the responsibility.

“Today it could be Bumrah, tomorrow it could be Kohli or a Rohit Sharma. You cant be dependent on any one particular player. You got to be strong mentally, you got to believe in yourself and in your team,” added Venkatesh Prasad, who 292 wickets in 194 games for India.

One has to improve: Prasad on Siraj’s exclusion

Asked if he was shocked not to see Mohammed Siraj’s name in India’s provisional 15-member squad for the Champions Trophy, the Karnataka stalwart played in a defensive way.

“If I had to be in Siraj’s position, I would have been pretty disappointed. But then again, it’s selector’s call. If the selectors had to select the 15 and leave him (Siraj) out, so obviously one has to improve. That’s how as a player, I look at it,” he added while responding to a Livemint query.

“If I had to talk about myself, I was probably not good enough. What are the areas I should be looking at and what are the areas I should be improving. That is what a player should be looking at,” he signed off.

India’s squad for ICC Champions Trophy 2025

Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill (Vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (WK), Rishabh Pant (WK), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Mohd. Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Varun Chakaravarthy.

Non Travelling substitutes: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Mohammed Siraj and Shivam Dube. The three players will travel to Dubai as and when required.