On the 20th of February, India will lock horns with Bangladesh to start their ICC Champions Trophy 2025 expedition at the Dubai International Stadium, as the men in blue will hunt for their third CT title.
But ahead of the tournament’s opening game, it seems there is some tension as Times Now reported that an active Indian wicketkeeper-batter is unhappy with coach Gautam Gambhir. The report also states that this player believes he has been left out of the set-up because of external factors unrelated to his skills on the field.
The report, however, did not mention if that particular player was with the rest of the team heading for the ICC event.
For the marquee ICC event, Team India have called experienced KL Rahul and the flamboyant Rishabh Pant as wicketkeeping options, with the former likely to be the front-runner to don the gloves at the ICC CT 2025.
Pant, who has made a return from a car accident that kept him out of action for more than a year, has struggled to find his feet in white-ball cricket and is expected to feature as Rahul’s backup in the event co-hosted by Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates.
Team India has been pooled into Group A with Pakistan, Bangladesh, and New Zealand, while Group B has South Africa, Australia, England, and Afghanistan. The top two teams from each group will move on to knockout stages.
India Squad For Champions Trophy 2025:
Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill (VC), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (kW), Rishabh Pant (WK), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Mohd. Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Varun Chakaravarthy
