Wild card entries for ICC Champions Trophy

With the Champions Trophy just six weeks away, various cricket boards have already started with their preparations. Bangladesh; South Africa, who won the first Champions Trophy held in 1998 and; the winners of the 2006 edition: Australia, have already announced their squad for the tournament. England will host this mega event for the third time, the most by any country.

The ICC Champions Trophy was almost set to be scrapped after the 2013 edition but after huge commercial success of the tournament, it was retained. It might still get scrapped after the 2021 edition, which is scheduled to be held in India.

India is the current defending champions as they beat hosts England in the final by 5 runs at Birmingham in June 2013. India is yet to announce their squad but have known to travel with a 16-man squad. This gives hope to a couple of fringe players to be included in the squad. Let us take a look on the possible 5 candidates to get a wild card entry for the ICC Champions Trophy:

Rishabh Pant

The swashbuckling left-hander is having a good time in the IPL 2017. He started the tournament with a six off the first ball he faced and has never stopped since then. Paint can be an understudy to MS Dhoni on this tour. The 19-year old is widely tipped to take the big gloves as and when Dhoni hangs his boots. He has already represented India when he was picked to play the final T20 against England earlier this year. His IPL exploits might just pave the way for a maiden ODI call-up.

Big runs in first-class cricket is another thing that goes in Pant’s favour. The wicket-keeper batsman scored 972 runs in 12 innings at an average of 81. He scored 4 hundred, one a triple and another a 48-ball century. These numbers accentuate the fact that he can be more than just a pinch-hitter.