Champions Trophy preview: India

The squad: Virat Kohli (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, MS Dhoni (wk), Yuvraj Singh, Kedar Jadhav, Hardik Pandya, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammad Shami, Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Manish Pandey

The fixtures: June 4 v Pakistan, Edgbaston; June 8 v Sri Lanka, The Oval; June 11 v South Africa, The Oval

Best result: Winners - 2002 (shared with Sri Lanka), 2013

The talking point: India were the last nation to name their 15-man squad and will be the last team to arrive in England after the completion of the Indian Premier League. What does this all mean? It means Virat Kohli’s charges have roughly 10 days to acclimatise to the vastly different climate and conditions in the United Kingdom. Getting used to their new surroundings will be India's first challenge, according to former Australia batsman Mike Hussey. “India just need to get their confidence going in English conditions,” Hussey told cricket.com.au. “Sometimes it’s not easy to adapt to the conditions straight away as we saw with Kohli a few years ago in the (2014) Test series, he did battle over there. It’s how quickly they can adapt from subcontinental conditions to English conditions – that will be the challenge."

The one to watch: The 2017 Champions Trophy could very well be the international swansong of India legend MS Dhoni. A year ago he declared he intended on playing on until the 2019 World Cup but that looks a long way away now, in particular after the unusual presentation he received in his most recent, and perhaps last, limited-overs match in India. Regardless of his playing future, Dhoni will be a key player for India, able to contribute handy runs down the order and is still the fastest gloveman in the world.

The pressure is on: A poor run with the bat against Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series was backed up by another lean run in the IPL by captain Kohli. The prolific right-hander has scored runs like clockwork in the past three years but his purple patch may have finally ended. Kohli is surrounded by a power-packed batting order, but if India are going to defend their 2013 title they will need their skipper leading from the front with plenty of runs.

Mike Hussey’s verdict: They’re a class outfit. They’ve got some many good players all the way down the list and they’ve been high quality players for a long period of time now. They boast a young squad but they’ve played a lot of cricket. The usual suspects of Kohli and Ravi Ashwin will feature heavily, but India have got some other guys like Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who’s been in great form in the IPL. Umesh Yadav – he’s just getting better and better every year as a quick. They’re going to have a really good attack and they’ve got class in their batting all the way down. Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane and Kohli – they’re all class players.

Champions Trophy 2017 Guide

Squads: Every Champions Trophy squad named so far

Group A: Australia, New Zealand, England, Bangladesh.

Group B: India, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Pakistan.

Schedule

Warm-up matches

26 May – Australia v Sri Lanka, The Oval

27 May – Bangladesh v Pakistan, Edgbaston

28 May – India v New Zealand, The Oval

29 May – Australia v Pakistan, Edgbaston

30 May – New Zealand v Sri Lanka, Edgbaston

30 May – Bangladesh vs India, The Oval

Tournament

1 June – England v Bangladesh, The Oval (Day)

2 June – Australia v New Zealand, Edgbaston (D)

3 June – Sri Lanka v South Africa, The Oval (D)

4 June – India v Pakistan, Edgbaston (D)

5 June – Australia v Bangladesh, The Oval (D/N)

6 June – England v New Zealand, Cardiff (D)

7 June – Pakistan v South Africa, Edgbaston (D/N)

8 June – India v Sri Lanka, The Oval (D)

9 June – New Zealand v Bangladesh, Cardiff (D)

10 June – England v Australia, Edgbaston (D)

11 June – India v South Africa, The Oval (D)

12 June – Sri Lanka v Pakistan, Cardiff (D)

14 June – First semi-final (A1 v B2), Cardiff (D)

15 June – Second semi-final (A2 v B1), Edgbaston (D)

18 June – Final, The Oval (D)

19 June – Reserve day (D)