The Indian men’s cricket team will travel to Dubai next month to take part in the ICC Champions Trophy 2025. Pakistan is the host of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025, but due to tense political relations between the two countries, India will not travel to Pakistan and will instead play its matches in Dubai. The BCCI selectors met on Saturday, January 18, in Mumbai to pick India’s squad for the eight-team tournament. Young Indian opening batter Yashasvi Jaiswal, who is yet to play a 50-over match for Men in Blue, was picked in the squad. Jaiswal’s current form in international cricket made him a strong contender for a place in India’s playing XI, but for that he faces strong competition from Shubman Gill, who has a good record in ODIs.
Many fans and experts feel Jaiswal should open for the Rohit Sharma-led side because of him being a left-handed batter, but former India wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik is sure that Gill will open, and the 25-year-old right-handed batter from Punjab will play all the matches as well.
According to Karthik, by naming Gill as India’s vice-captain for the ICC tournament, the BCCI selectors have confirmed his place in the playing XI.
“Purely because Shubman Gill has been announced as vice-captain, it’s their way of saying he is going to start and he’s going to play all games. So, he will be opening in this Champions Trophy,” Karthik said on Cribuzz’s HeyCBwithDK show.
The member of India’s 2007 T20 World Cup and 2013 Champions Trophy-winning squad was also asked about his opinion on India’s squad for the eight-team ICC event, to which he said there could have been one more fast bowler in place of either Ravindra Jadeja or Axar Patel, who both are left-arm spinners and lower middle-order batters.
“I only feel one thing. Could there have been a fast bowler instead of two left-arm spinning all-rounders? I think they found it hard to choose which one to take amongst the two. That was the only thing. Could it have been Harshit (Rana) or Siraj as the next fast bowler? That’s the only thing. Other than that, I think they’ve picked a fair squad. I hoped Varun Chakravarthy would be there, but they’ve gone for Kuldeep Yadav, fair enough.”
