Indian captain Rohit Sharma strongly defended the Men in Blue's squad selection for the 2025 Champions Trophy ahead of the team's opening game in the tournament against Bangladesh, scheduled to take place on Thursday (February 20) at the Dubai International Stadium.

India's 15-member squad for the mega includes five spinners after Varun Chakravarthy replaced Yashavi Jaiswal in a late charge by the Men in Blue. The decision to overload the team with spin bowling options while playing in Dubai has divided opinions.

Rohit was quick to point out that only two of them are specialist spinners while three are all-rounders. For those unversed, Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, and Washington Sundar are part of the side alongside Kuldeep Yadav and Varun.

"There are two spinners. The rest are all-rounders. I am not looking at them as five spinners. Those three guys can bat and bowl as well. In other teams, when they have fast-bowling all-rounders, they have six pacers and people say it's good. We work on our strengths and look to run the team on that. Those three guys, Jadeja, Axar, and Washi give us a different dimension. They add a lot of depth to this team. We wanted to try and get players, who have two skills,' said Rohit in the pre-match press conference.

While India has three all-rounders who can bowl spin, Hardik Pandya remains the team's only pace-bowling all-rounder.

India has just three specialist pacers in the squad which is devoid of the services of Jasprit Bumrah. Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh, and Harshit Rana are the only fast-bowlers in the squad.

In the England series, India played two among Axar/Jadeja/Sundar in the playing XI with one of Kuldeep and Varun complimenting them. The Men in Blue are likely to retain the same combination in the Champions Trophy.

After playing Bangladesh, the Rohit Sharma-led side will face Pakistan on February 23 and New Zealand on March 2.

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