ICC champions trophy 2025 will be starting from 19th February. India will be playing against Bangladesh on 20th February. It’s a second match in the tournament. Let’s analyse the Indian probable, predictable playing 11 for Champions trophy 2025.
A new change has happened in the squad as compared to the tentative squad which was announced previously. Two new entries added to the team and two players have exited from the team. Harshit Rana and Varun Chakravarthy are the two players newly added to the team.
We can say Varun Chakravarthy entered the team all of a sudden. Harshit Rana was in the scheme of things. When the squad was announced Harshit Rana was a back up player for Jasprit Bumrah. Varun Chakravarthy, all of a sudden entered after performing well in the T20 series against England. Mohammed Siraj might have been disappointed with this. As he was ignored from the squad.
Jasprit Bumrah who was a main bowler in all ICC tournaments got ruled out from the champions trophy. Though he got recovered from injury, NCA did not give him a fitness certificate to play for the champions trophy. Hence Harshit Rana who was a back up option, entered the Indian squad as a replacement for Jasprit Bumrah.
Analysis of Indian probable playing 11
The 15 members of the Indian squad as displayed in the above image. Batting order is a sure shot. No changes can be made in batting order. We have seen in the ODI series against England. How the top order, middle order and lower order impacted against England. It will be the same as before, no changes will be made.
The expected team will be
- Rohit Sharma (c)
- Shubhman Gill (vc)
- Virat Kohli
- Shreyas Iyer
- KL Rahul (wk)
- Hardik Pandya
- Axar Patel
- Ravindra Jadeja
- Mohammed Shami
- Arshdeep singh
- Varun Chakravarthy
1). Rohit Sharma is the captain and Shubhman Gill will be the vice captain, both are openers. They have built a good partnership in the ODI series against England. No variations in these opening batters.
2) Virat Kohli will be playing in number 3. In the India vs England ODI series, there was no chance for Shreyas Iyer. Yashaswi Jaiswal was an opening batter and Shubhman Gill was allowed to play at number 3 and Virat Kohli at number 4.
Shreyas Iyer was not in the scheme at all. Virat Kohli got injured to his knee. Shreyas Iyer played on behalf of Virat Kohli in the 1st ODI match.
3) Shreyas Iyer gave a consistent performance in all the three ODI matches against England. This made him select in the playing 11 for the Champions trophy. No chances of removing him from the squad. Such a performance was given by Shreyas Iyer in the ODI series against England. It is sure shot that Shreyas Iyer will be playing at number 4.
4) At number 5 KL Rahul has to play. He did not get many opportunities. In the 3rd ODI against England, he played at number 5 and the remaining two matches he played at number 7. Why KL Rahul at number 7? Goutham Gambhir might have made him play at number 7 to maintain the right hand and the left hand combination strategy.
At number 5 KL Rahul’s stats are extraordinary. He is an opening ability player. No point in making him play at 7. It looks like all the capabilities are depreciating to KL Rahul. He has to play at number 5.
5) At number 6 , the options are like floating. It can be Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja. All these three players are capable of playing in any slots. Its better if Hardik Pandya plays at number 6 , Axar Patel at number 7 and Ravindra Jadeja at number 8. But these three players are floating, any of these players can be allowed to play in these slots.
The top 5 batters can be sealed down and these three players can be used as floaters based on the right hand and left hand combination. It won’t look good if kL Rahul comes in a variation spot.
Axar Patel at number 7 and Jadeja at number 8.
Whatever the chances given to Axar Patel both in bowling and batting, he performed well. In bowling he hawled many wickets at the right time with an economic spell. Batting performance also evolved a lot. Axar Patel has to play and Jadeja also has to play.
If this top and middle order unit, plays in the champions trophy, then the Indian team looks so strong. Opponent teams have to shiver after looking at the Indian team. Batting order is consistent. If any of the wickets falls initially, the other players can stand up and bounce back easily. If these 8 players are playing, there will be a strong batting attack.
6) In number 9 we are expecting Mohammed Shami. In the last ICC tournaments especially in 2023 ICC world cup, he gave game changing performance. When it comes to ICC tournaments, Shami is at an extreme level. We are expecting the same performance in this tournament too. Initial match opportunities will be there for Shami. If he is costly, not hawling wickets, then the opportunity will go to Harshit Rana. Harshit Rana will not be playing the first match.
7) In number 10, Arshdeep Singh has to play. And in number 11 Varun Chakravarthy. We can read Kuldeep Yadav but not Varun Chakravarthy. We have seen it was difficult for England batters to pick a ball in Varun Chakravarthy’s bowling. When England Players are struggling and have no words about Bangladesh players. This mystery spinner has to be there. There will be huge variations if we have at least one right arm spinner instead of the left arm spinner.
Arshdeep singh is a left arm pacer and has the ability to take wickets in powerplay. We need a left arm pacer to have variations in bowling. We need all the variations left arm spin, right arm spin, left arm pace and right arm pace.
From Hardik Pandya to the bottom, we have a total of 6 bowlers. If we take these 6 bowlers, it’s more than enough to beat the opponent easily.
We have selected Varun Chakravarthy instead of Kuldeep Yadav. Because in the India vs England series, he performed well and we have seen how batters struggled in his bowling. No justification about Mohammad Shami and Arshdeep Singh. We have kept Rishabh Pant out, no justification about that because KL Rahul will be the prior one for wicket keeping. Recently there is an update about Plant’s injury too.
This will be the expected playing 11 in Indian team in Champions trophy. An official update has to come to know the exact players who will be playing in the playing 11.