India’s premier quick Jasprit Bumrah and Australia’s Mitchell Starc became the latest addition to the injured list dominated by pace bowlers ahead of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025, scheduled to begin on February 19.

Putting an end to speculations around Bumrah’s availability for the mega tournament, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Tuesday announced that the pace spearhead has been ruled out due to the back issue, which he picked up during the fifth and final Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Sydney earlier this year.

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Bumrah’s replacement is Harshit Rana, who made his ODI debut during the ongoing England series. Yashasvi Jaiswal has also been left out of the provisional squad, and Varun Chakravarthy has been named as his replacement. Varun has been drafted into the squad as Jaiswal, along with Mohammed Siraj and Shivam Dube, have been moved to the line-up of non-travelling reserves.

Meanwhile, Starc withdrew from the Australian squad, joining Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood on the sidelines. Australia also lost Mitchell Marsh through injury before Marcus Stoinis announced his shock retirement from ODIs just days before the tournament.

South Africa’s Anrich Nortje was the first player to be ruled out of the tournament after the participating nations announced their preliminary squads for the upcoming Champions Trophy 2025, which will be staged in Pakistan and UAE.

Nortje was joined by fellow pacer Gerald Coetzee on the list of injured players, while a few players still remain doubtful for the tournament after picking up injuries recently. Pakistan’s Haris Rauf has been ruled out of the remainder of the home ODI Tri-Series with a muscular sprain in the lower chest wall. Another Pakistan player certain to miss the tournament is opening batter Saim Ayub, who suffered a nasty injury late last year.

New Zealand duo Lockie Ferguson and Rachin Ravindra also remain doubtful starters, having suffered a hamstring injury and a blow to the face respectively in their recent outings. Ferguson picked up the injury during the ILT20, while Ravindra was struck on the forehead during the Tri-Series opener against Pakistan.

England also suffered a blow when young all-rounder Jacob Bethell picked up an injury during the white-ball tour to India in the lead-up to the Champions Trophy, which resumes after eight years.

The ICC had set February 11 as the deadline for all participating teams to submit their final squads of 15 for the Champions Trophy. Any subsequent changes to the squad will need approval from the tournament’s technical committee.

India’s squad for the Champions Trophy: Rohit Sharma (capt), Shubman Gill (vice-capt), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Varun Chakravarthy

Non-travelling substitutes: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Mohammed Siraj, Shivam Dube