‌Root returns as England announce squad for Champions Trophy 

Jos Buttler is set to lead England in his fourth ICC event as the England Cricket Board announced a competitive squad for the prestigious tourney. Root is back at the fold, having played his last ODI during the World Cup 2023 in India where the English side failed to qualify for the semi-finals after a horrendous performance. They were even at the cusp of getting eliminated from the Champions Trophy 2025 but wins against Pakistan and Netherlands at the last moment helped them cement a place. 

This will be England’s first competitive tournament under Brendon McCullum as the all-format coach. The likes of nine Test players in the World Cup squad sums up the thought process.  They’ve picked a plethora of a quick pacers in the form of Mark Wood, Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, and Brydon Carse. Jamie Overton happened to make the cut on the basis of his hitting ability and recent performances.

Sam Curran, Will Jacks, and Reece Topley are a few notable omissions with the latter’s monotonous injuries not helping. It was also rumoured that there were talks around Ben Stokes return to ODI but the all-rounder suffered a left hamstring injury during the third Test against New Zealand, and therefore kept aloof.

England Squad for Champions Trophy 2025: Jos Buttler (C), Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook, Brydon Carse, Ben Duckett, Jamie Overton, Jamie Smith (wk), Liam Livingstone, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Saqib Mahmood, Phil Salt, Mark Wood