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Gill Explains Nair’s Snub, Bumrah Out And Chakravarthy In – February 4 Cricket Highlights



Shubman Gill and Jasprit Bumrah [Source: @BCCI/x]Shubman Gill and Jasprit Bumrah [Source: @BCCI/x]

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The Indian squad underwent a couple of changes just a couple of days prior to their home ODI series against England. Vice-captain Shubman Gill explained the deal behind the exclusion of domestic run-machine Karun Nair from the national side. In other news, a Sri Lankan batting great has picked a date for his swansong international match.

Capping an eventful day in the world of cricket, here we take a look at five of the biggest cricketing news that emerged out of Tuesday, February 4.

Shubman Gill Explains Karun Nair’s CT 2025 Exclusion

Indian vice-captain Shubman Gill has explained the exclusion of domestic veteran Karun Nair from Team India’s squad for the upcoming ODI series against England as well as from the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy. Nair, who played just two ODI matches for India nearly a decade ago, recently ransacked 779 runs from just eight innings of the 2024-25 Vijay Hazare Trophy season for Vidarbha at a surreal average of 389.50.

Gill stated that while Nair had a prolific Vijay Hazare Trophy season, the current players in the Indian line-up should not be dropped before a big-ticket event like the Champions Trophy.

Jasprit Bumrah Ruled Out Of England ODIs

Indian fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah has been ruled out of the ODI series against England. Despite initially getting selected in the Indian squad, the speedster was excluded from the line-up on February 4, as per a post shared by the BCCI on X just a couple of days prior to the curtain-raising game in Nagpur.

Bumrah has been sidelined from the team ever since he sustained a back injury during India’s five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy tour of Australia last month. As of now, he is in a race against time to attain full fitness before the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy.

Varun Chakravarthy Added To India Squad For England ODIs

Indian spinner Varun Chakravarthy, who delivered a ‘Player of the Series’ performance against England in the recently-concluded T20I series, has been included in India’s ODI squad for the upcoming 50-overs fixtures. While Chakravarthy made his international debut back in July 2021, he is yet to play single ODI match for his country. Moreover, the leg-spinner has played only 23 first-class games in domestic cricket, picking up an impressive haul of 59 wickets in the process at a stupendous bowling average of 14.13 and a strike rate of 19.80.

Dimuth Karunaratne Announces Retirement From International Cricket

Sri Lankan great Dimuth Karunaratne has announced his retirement from international cricket. The 36-year-old has confirmed that Sri Lanka’s upcoming series-deciding second Test against the visiting Australian team will be his final outing in Sri Lankan colours. Notably, the match also marks the 100th Test appearance of his career.

In his 99-match career so far, Karunaratne racked up 7,172 runs at a batting average of 39.40. He also led Sri Lanka to a historic 2-0 Test series victory in South Africa back in 2019. The match against Australia, meanwhile, will be played between February 6 and 10 later this week.

Rohit Sharma Nears Tendulkar For Huge ODI Record Before ENG Series

Just a couple of days prior to India’s ODI series against England, Indian captain Rohit Sharma finds himself on the cusp of breaking a huge batting record of all-time great Sachin Tendulkar. Currently sitting on a pile of 10,866 ODI runs, Sharma needs just 134 more runs to scale the 11,000-run mark in the format. If he reaches the milestone figure within the next 19 innings, he will become the second quickest cricketer in history after national teammate Virat Kohli to do so.

One can expect Rohit Sharma to breach the milestone through the upcoming three-match ODI series between England and hosts India.