Follow UsIndia have picked Mohammed Shami and Harshit Rana as their two frontline seamers, with Arshdeep Singh missing out of the playing XI for their first game of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 against Bangladesh in Dubai on February 20 (Thursday). Rishabh Pant, Varun Chakravarthy and Washington Sundar are the other three players on the bench.
Bangladesh captain Najmul Hossain Shanto won the toss and opted to bat first at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. They have gone with three seamers and two spinners. Tanzim Hasan Sakib, Taskin Ahmed, and Mustafizur Rahman are the pacers, with Nahid Rana missing out.
Arshdeep, who featured in India’s XI for the third and final ODI against England, has 14 wickets in eight ODI innings. Meanwhile, Harshit has six wickets in three ODIs at an economy of 6.95. The Men in Blue have also gone with Kuldeep ahead of mystery spinner Chakravarthy.
Rohit Sharma (capt), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (w), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, Harshit Rana, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav
Tanzid Hasan, Soumya Sarkar, Najmul Hossain Shanto (capt), Towhid Hridoy, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Jaker Ali, Rishad Hossain, Tanzim Hasan Sakib, Taskin Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman
Najmul Hossain Shanto - "We would like to bat first. Looks a good wicket so we want to put runs on the board. We have to play good cricket today and the boys are confident. Three seamers, two spinners for us."
Rohit Sharma - "I would have fielded first. We have played a few years back here, so we felt the ball comes on better under lights. All looking good. Everyone is fit and fine to go. Let's hope we start well. There is no looking back, every game becomes very important in this tournament."
“It's reasonably cool - mid-20s. Very still, not a flag is moving. Dimensions - 82 metres down the ground, square boundaries - there's a 12m difference (62m and 74m). It is very bare. It's the first game of the tournament, so it's a fresh pitch. Because of the Women's T20 World Cup and the ILT20, it can look like a tired square. But this one looks fine. It's not used, mosaic little cracks. It might get a bit tired and a bit dry towards the end. Speaking to the groundsman, he says they've had no dew this year. Win the toss and bat,” said Mel Jones and Nasser Hussain.