There are only a few days left for the Champions Trophy 2025 to begin. The Champions Trophy is also called the mini World Cup. Being the reigning ODI world champions, Australia and the reigning T20 World Cup champions will be the favorites to win the Champions Trophy 2025 title along with India. India will play its matches in Dubai, while the rest of the matches will be played in Pakistan. Earlier, Australian captain Pat Cummins has taken a dig at Virat Kohli. Cummins has given a direct challenge to the rivals in a TV commercial. In the Champions Trophy promotion ad, Cummins can be seen practicing sledding in front of the camera. He says some lines in which Ben Stokes, Ollie Pope, and Virat Kohli are mentioned.
Cummins says while shaving, 'You wear these pads to hide your skinny legs. Your mustache looks very dirty. Oye Ben, I'm not Stokes about you. Hey Pope, you better start praying. Hey Kohli, I've never seen you bat so slowly before. Like Quinton de Block, I'm Pat Cummins for you.' In the final of the ODI World Cup 2023 in Ahmedabad, Cummins silenced the entire stadium by dismissing Virat.
India's star players, including Kohli, will be seen playing a three-match ODI series against England from February 6. This series led by Rohit Sharma is being seen as India's preparation before the Champions Trophy. The Champions Trophy will start on February 19. When the Indian team arrived in Nagpur for a practice session on Tuesday ahead of the opening match of the three-match ODI series against England, wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant focused on batting practice while KL Rahul tried more at wicketkeeping. The series against England will start on Thursday. In such a situation, it will be very difficult for coach Gautam Gambhir and captain Rohit Sharma to decide on either of the two for the playing 11.
Rohit-Gill can open
Rohit and Shubman Gill can open the innings and Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer will come to bat at the third and fourth positions respectively. Hardik Pandya plays at number six, so the wicketkeeper-batsman is likely to come at number five. Rahul performed well in the 2023 ODI World Cup, scoring 452 runs and also doing wicketkeeping. However, Pant was not available for selection at that time. He was recovering from a car accident injury.
Shreyas Iyer may be dropped.
In India's last ODI series against Sri Lanka, Rahul played innings of 31 and zero runs along with wicketkeeping in the first two matches. Pant played the third match but could score only six runs. India may choose to include both the players in the playing 11, but in such a case Iyer may have to be dropped from the XI.
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