India have announced the squad for the Champions Trophy 2025, which is set to begin on February 19. Rohi Sharma has been confirmed to lead the team, as the Men in Blue would look to win their third title and surpass Australia as the most successful team in the tournament's history. There were quite a few speculations as to who would become the vice-captain of the side for the mega tournament with players like Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, and Jasprit Bumrah in the mix. However, the role of the vice-captain has been handed to Shubman Gill.

Shubman Gill was the vice-captain of the India team in the T20I and ODI series against Sri Lanka. Hence, Ajit Agarkar, in the press conference to announce the squad said that thus he was an automatic choice for the role. He also hinted that making Shubman the vice-captain for the series is the feedback that came from the dressing room.

“Shubman was vice-captain in Sri Lanka anyway, I wouldn’t read too much into it. A lot of the feedback comes from the dressing room. You also want to keep your options open. One of the challenges is that not many are leading their state teams nowadays… but you are always on the lookout for anyone who has got some leadership qualities," Agarkar said.

Shubman Gill is also the vice-captain for the three-match ODI series vs England.

India will play their first match of the Champions Trophy against Bangladesh on February 20. This will be followed by the mega clash vs Pakistan on February 23, followed by the final group game against New Zealand on March 2.

Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill (vc), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Rishabh Pant(wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Yashasvi Jaiswal

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