Australia, the two-time Champions Trophy winners, announced their preliminary 15-man squad for the 2025 edition of the series on Monday (Jan 13), including two seasoned pacers, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, who recently suffered injuries.
The reigning world champions have named an all-rounder-heavy team for the first showpiece event of the year, with Matthew Short and Aaron Hardie earning their maiden call-up for an ICC tournament.
Our preliminary squad for the 2025 @ICC #ChampionsTrophy is here 🔥 pic.twitter.com/LK8T2wZwDr
— Cricket Australia (@CricketAus) January 13, 2025
Fresh from winning the coveted BGT against India at home, Australia’s next target is bagging the first ICC tournament of the year, where they will face England, Afghanistan and South Africa in the Group Stage, with Pakistan hosting their matches.
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A boost for the world champions is the return of their captain Cummins to the ODI side after previous reports suggested that he could miss the Champions Trophy 2025 due to an injury. Cummins will, however, miss the upcoming two-match Test series against Sri Lanka, starting January 29, for the birth of his second child. Veteran batter Steve Smith will lead in his absence.
Meanwhile, most World Cup-winning players have retained their places, with Travis Head and Mitchell Marsh picked as openers. Marnus Labuschagne, Smith and Glenn Maxwell will play in the middle order, while Marcus Stoinis and two relatively newer faces in the ODIs – Hardie and Short – will take care of the lower-order duties.
Australia has named two glovemen - Alex Carey and first-choice Josh Inglis.
Cummins, Hazlewood, and Mitchell Starc are part of the bowling department, with the right-arm seamer Nathan Ellis picked as a backup. Australia, however, has just named one specialist spinner in Adam Zampa.
"This is a balanced and experienced squad with the core having been involved in the previous one-day World Cup, the West Indies series, last year's successful tour of the UK and the more recent Pakistan home series," chief selector George Bailey said, as quoted by cricket.com.au.
"It offers a variety of options for touring management depending on the opposition and the conditions that may present in Pakistan,” he added.
Australia squad for Champions Trophy 2025 -
Pat Cummins (captain), Alex Carey, Nathan Ellis, Aaron Hardie, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Matt Short, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis and Adam Zampa
Australia’s Group B Fixtures –
- February 22: Australia v England, Lahore
- February 25: Australia v South Africa, Rawalpindi
- February 28: Afghanistan v Australia, Lahore
(With inputs from agencies)