Champions Trophy 2025: Who Will Play in India vs Pakistan? Big Questions Ahead

IND vs PAK, World Cup 2023, ICC Cricket World Cup

February 22, 2025

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Champions Trophy 2025: Who Will Play in India vs Pakistan? Big Questions Ahead

The big day of Champions Trophy 2025 is almost here. India and Pakistan are going to play each other in Dubai on February 23rd. Everyone has been waiting for this match for a long time. Pakistan wants to win badly after losing their first game. India played well against Bangladesh and wants to keep winning.

India winning this game means they will likely go to the next round. Pakistan needs to win to keep their hopes alive. People are wondering if India will change their team. Let’s see who might play.

India’s Batting: Strong and Steady

India’s batting is very strong. Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill will open the batting. Before, people talked about Yashasvi Jaiswal playing, but Gill has been amazing. He scored a hundred against Bangladesh. Rohit is playing to help the team get quick runs.

Virat Kohli has not scored many runs lately. He had a bad Test series and a bad Ranji Trophy game. He scored 52 in one of the two ODIs against England. But Kohli is a big player and often does well in big games. This game is a big one.

Shreyas Iyer will play at number four. He has scored a lot of runs and is very good at that position. He is the only player in ODI history to have a high average and a high strike rate at number four.

Virat Kohli, ICC, T20 World Cup

All-Rounders and KL Rahul

India has good all-rounders. Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja will be important on the Dubai pitch. Gautam Gambhir likes having left-handed and right-handed players, so KL Rahul will bat lower. This makes Axar’s role bigger. He can bat in the powerplay and help the team later.

KL Rahul scored 41 not out against Bangladesh. This will help his confidence. He was not in good form before. Hardik Pandya is a match-winner. He can finish the game with his batting. He can also bowl slower balls on the Dubai pitch. Pandya does very well against Pakistan. Jadeja took six wickets against England.

Bowling Changes? Rana, Arshdeep, Kuldeep, or Chakravarthy?

Mohammed Shami bowled very well against Bangladesh. He took five wickets. But there are questions about the other bowlers. Harshit Rana bowled with Shami in the last game. He took three wickets, but some people said Gautam Gambhir helped him because they played for the same team before. Rana bowled well and used the pitch to his advantage. He could bowl in the middle overs.

Arshdeep Singh can bowl well with the new ball. He did well against Pakistan in the T20 World Cup. But India might keep Rana because he took three wickets in his first ICC game.

There is also a question about the spinner. Varun Chakravarthy has taken a lot of T20I wickets. But India played Kuldeep Yadav against Bangladesh. Kuldeep did not take any wickets. Hardik Pandya dropped a catch off his bowling.

Kuldeep bowled slow balls, and the Bangladesh batsmen scored runs. Some people think Chakravarthy should play instead. Dubai’s pitches help spinners, but not all spinners do well there. Kuldeep has done well in ICC tournaments. But Chakravarthy can confuse batsmen with his different types of balls. Pakistan’s batsmen might struggle against mystery spin. It would not be a surprise if Chakravarthy plays instead of Kuldeep.

Predicted India Team: