The India vs Bangladesh Champions Trophy 2025 clash in Dubai on Thursday saw many terrific performances. Mohammed Shami became the highest Indian wicket-taker in ICC events, Rohit Sharma crossed the 11,000-run mark in ODIs while Bangladesh’s Towhid Hridoy struck a fine century after his team’s tumultuous start. However, there were some bloopers too. Rohit Sharma dropped a catch to deny Axar Patel a hat-trick. Then, KL Rahul‘s wicketkeeping came under the scanner as he failed to collect the ball and a dismissal chance was missed. After Rahul’s missed effort, the camera showed a frustrated Virat Kohli. “That was the third fielding lapse for India,” Harsha Bhogle said on air.

Virat kohli angry on KL Rahul keeping#ViratKohli #ICCChampionsTrophy2025 #BCCI #RohitSharma #BabarAzam #CT25 #Jaspritbumrah #PakistanCricket #Trump #PakvsNz #INDvsPAK #PAKvNZ #NZvsPAK #NZvPAK #ShubmanGill #Dhoni #Bangladesh #IndvsBan #INDvBAN #BANvIND #BANvsIND pic.twitter.com/FnxQqnFB8t

— SOHAIB (@S0HAIB_7) February 20, 2025

A cramping Towhid Hridoy made a courageous maiden ODI hundred but led by five-wicket man Mohammed Shami India managed to keep Bangladesh to an underwhelming 228 in their Champions Trophy opener on Thursday. Hridoy (100, 118b, 6×4, 2×6) and an equally gutsy Jaker Ali (68, 114b, 4×4) added 154 for an doughty sixth-wicket stand to drag Bangladesh back from the depth of 35 for five after they elected to bat.

Shami also eased a lot of worries over the absence of injured pace ace Jasprit Bumrah with a five for 53 effort, and during the spell he also became the fastest Indian bowler to reach 200 ODI wickets.

Hridoy’s innings was an example of how to construct an innings yet maintain a healthy run-rate as he reached the milestone in just 114 balls.

He and Ali also showed excellent composure under pressure.

However, both the Bangladesh batters benefited from the largesse of Indian fielders, as Ali was dropped on zero off the first ball he faced off left-arm spinner Axar Patel (2/43).

It also robbed Axar of a hat-trick after he dismissed Mushfiqur Rahim and Tanzid Hasan off successive deliveries.

Hridoy had the fortune when he was grassed by Hardik Pandya at mid-off off Kuldeep Yadav when he was on 23.

KL Rahul, who was sharp behind the stumps, floored a stumping chance to give the second reprieve for Hridoy. Indian fielders were also sloppy in the middle passage, allowing the Bangladesh batters to steadily collect singles and twos to ease some pressure.

But those moments of slip-ups should not take anything away from the way Indian bowlers, especially Shami, used the new ball on a rather slow but smooth pitch.

Shami, who had an average outing against England in T20I and ODI series recently at home, did not disappoint on the big stage and took the wicket of opener Soumya Sarkar in the first over itself.

He did not take much time to grab his second wicket when he ousted Mehdy Hasan Miraz — caught brilliantly by Shubman Gill in the slips.

The Bengal pacer later returned to break the determined stand between Hridoy and Ali, dismissing the latter.

He later took two more wickets, and now the 34-year-old is India’s highest wicket taker in ICC tournaments, going past former pacer Zaheer Khan (59).

Harshit Rana (3/31), who was preferred over left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh, gave good backing to his senior partner.

With PTI inputs 

Only two days remain before the start of Rohit Sharma-led India’s Champions Trophy 2025 campaign with a match against Bangladesh in Dubai on Thursday. After the loss in Australia, the Champions Trophy provides a chance for the Indian cricket team to redeem itself. Post the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, which India lost 3-1, several reports claimed that all was not well in the Indian dressing room. There was a report surrounding a certain ‘Mr. Fix-it’ who harboured ambition to be India’s interim captain, there were was also a report claiming coach Gautam Gambhir was unhappy with one of the younger players for leaking dressing room information. Several experts believed that the team bonding was missing.

Post that Tour, the BCCI introduced several guidelines like making in compulsory to travel in team bus, no wives/partners on short Tours, no personal ad photoshoot on Tours. In the midst of this, a report has claimed that a wicketkeeper is unhappy with India coach Gautam Gambhir over ODI XI snub. 

The report in Times Now, quoting sources, has said that a ‘current India wicketkeeper’, who is not the first choice in ODI playing XI, feels that he has lost his spot due to an ‘external reason’. The report did not name the player. It also did not mention whether the wicketkeeper is part of the Champions Trophy squad or nor. 

Currently, KL Rahul is India’s first choice wicketkeeper in the Champions Trophy, as confirmed by Gambhir. Rishabh Pant is the other wicketkeeper in the squad.

Rishabh Pant, who was struck on the knee by a shot from Hardik Pandya during Sunday’s training, appeared to be struggling, limping slightly on Monday.

He skipped the wicketkeeping and fielding practice and looked rusty when he came to bat, missing and edging several deliveries. The session kicked off with a direct-hit competition between three teams.

Gearing up for the finisher’s role, wicketkeeper-batter KL Rahul worked on his big-hitting skills as the Indian team trained for the second time on Monday ahead of their Champions Trophy opener against Bangladesh. Rahul, typically known for his technical approach, appeared to shift gears as he focused on playing aggressive shots. With Rishabh Pant pushing for a spot in the playing XI, the 32-year-old seemed to embrace a more proactive, power-hitting mindset.

India Squad For Champions Trophy 2025

Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill (Vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (WK), Rishabh Pant (WK), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Mohd. Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Varun Chakaravarthy.

With PTI inputs

Delhi Capitals Schedule IPL 2025: Delhi Capitals (DC) have had a major reshuffle to their squad following the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 mega auction, and are expected by many to appoint India all-rounder Axar Patel as captain of the side. With Rishabh Pant leaving DC, the franchise retained Axar, chinaman Kuldeep Yadav, Tristan Stubbs and Abishek Porel. KL Rahul was the team’s headline purchase at the auction, while Australians Mitchell Starc and Jake Fraser-McGurk were also bought for big money. Delhi will be aiming for their first title win in IPL 2025.

Here is Delhi Capitals’ IPL 2025 schedule in full:

DC vs LSG – 7:30 PM IST – Marh 24 – ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Vishakhapatnam

DC vs SRH – 3:30 PM IST – March 30 – ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Vishakhapatnam

CSK vs DC – 3:30 PM IST – April 5 – MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai

RCB vs DC – 7:30 PM IST – April 10 – M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru

DC vs MI – 7:30 PM IST – April 13 – Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi

DC vs RR – 7:30 PM IST – April 16 – Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi

GT vs DC – 3:30 PM IST – April 19 – Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad

LSG vs DC – 7:30 PM IST – April 22 – Ekana Stadium, Lucknow

DC vs RCB – 7:30 PM IST – April 27 – Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi

DC vs KKR – 7:30 PM IST – April 29 – Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi

SRH vs DC – 7:30 PM IST –  May 5 – Uppal Stadium, Hyderabad

PBKS vs DC – 7:30 PM IST – May 8 – New Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mullanpur

DC vs GT – 7:30 PM IST – May 11 – Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi

MI vs DC – 7:30 PM IST – May 15 – Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai

DC Full Squad:

KL Rahul, Harry Brook, Faf du Plessis, Karun Nair, Sameer Rizvi, Donovan Ferreira, Tripurana Vijay, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Tristan Stubbs, Ashutosh Sharma, Mukesh Kumar, Dushmantha Chameera, Ajay Mandal, Manvanth Kumar, Madhav Tiwari, Mitchell Starc, Jake Fraser-McGurk, T. Natarajan, Mohit Sharma, Darshan Nalkande, Vipraj Nigam

Team India’s 3-0 ODI series sweep against England does instill a lot of confidence in the team ahead of the start of the ICC Champions Trophy. With Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli also showing signs of a return to form, the Indian team management can breathe a sigh of relief. But, there remain certain aspects of the team that a few experts aren’t confident about. One of the biggest concerns for them, going forward is the lack of clarity about India’s middle-order. In fact, a report has claimed that head coach Gautam Gambhir and chief selector Ajit Agarkar aren’t on the same page over the selection cases of Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant, prompting a heated debate in the team too. 

When India’s preliminary Champions Trophy squad was picked, Agarkar had labelled Rishabh Pant as the No. 1 wicket-keeper in the team. But, he didn’t play a single ODI against England. After the conclusion of the series, head coach Gambhir clarified that KL Rahul is India’s No. 1 wicket-keeper in ODIs. The contradictory statements from the two pillars of the management don’t paint a pleasant picture.

“Ultimately, it’s very difficult to talk about individuals, but all I can say is that if Pant is a part of the squad, he will get an opportunity. But at the moment obviously, KL is our number one wicketkeeper, and he’s delivered for us. When you have two wicketkeepers in the squad, you can’t play both with the kind of quality we’ve got. Hopefully, whenever he [Pant] gets an opportunity, he should be ready for it,” Gambhir had said after the conclusion of the ODI series.

In the first ODI against England, the team had initially intended to keep Shreyas Iyer on the bench, while giving Yashasvi Jaiswal a chance at the top. But, an injury to Virat Kohli meant that Iyer played at the usual No. 3 spot, cracking a fiery half-century. The batter, since then, became a regular for the remaining two matches of the series. But, there seems to be some conflict in the team management over Iyer’s case too. 

In a chat with the Times of India, former selector Devang Gandhi lauded India coach Gautam Gambhir for helping the Indian team manage this transition but he also warned him to bring more consistency in the middle-order selection.

“Gambhir must be given due credit for working with a team in transition. He has got India dominating in the ODI format, much like India were doing from 2016-2019. What the selectors and Gambhir need to be careful about is consistency in the middle order,” Gandhi told TOI.

“The batting then was largely driven by the top three – Rohit, Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli. What happened then was nobody else got time to settle down from No. 4 onwards. The rest of the batting wasn’t sure of the role they had to play. “When the top order collapsed in those big matches, the rest of the batting looked clueless. Hopefully, it isn’t the case this time. If they have identified Axar as a No. 5 batter then they must look to give him a run at that number. Axar has done well but the management has to decide if he is going to be a long-term option who can rebuild and dominate an innings till the 2027 World Cup in South Africa,” Gandhi said.

For two of the three ODIs against England, the management promoted bowling all-rounder Axar Patel ahead of KL Rahul and Hardik Pandya, a move that baffled many. Gandhi feels even the decision to bench Iyer, though it couldn’t be fulfilled, didn’t make any sense.

“The idea to bench Iyer at the start of the series didn’t make any sense, since Iyer has been exceptional in the 2023 ODI World Cup and India have played very few ODIs after the World Cup,” Gandhi said.

Former India cricketer Aakash Chopra has identified three potential candidates for the Delhi Capitals captaincy role – Axar Patel, KL Rahul and Faf du Plessis – in the IPL 2025. He believes Axar could be the frontrunner given his recent rise in stature within Indian cricket. Delhi retained Axar for Rs 16.50 crore ahead of the mega auction last year, reflecting their faith in his abilities. They later secured KL Rahul for Rs 14 crore and Faf du Plessis for Rs 2 crore at the auction in Jeddah. Axar had a productive IPL 2024 season, picking up 11 wickets at an economy rate of 7.65 while also contributing 235 runs at a strike rate of 131.28 in 12 innings.

“I feel Delhi have three options. They have Axar Patel and KL Rahul, and they have Faf du Plessis as well. They retained Axar Patel. Bapu’s stature is growing. He has been outstanding of late. He is the Indian T20I team’s vice-captain,” Chopra said on his YouTube channel.

“He will play the Champions Trophy as well and has been given a very important role in the Indian ODI team. He is mature. He is brilliant. He understands the pulse of the game. He puts the team ahead of himself. So he could be a great choice.”

Chopra also highlighted KL Rahul’s leadership experience as a strong factor in his captaincy bid. “The second is KL Rahul. I feel they got him cheap. It was a steal. He has got some captaincy credentials. He has captained India, the Punjab Kings, and the Lucknow Super Giants for three years, and they qualified for two years as well. So he could be the captain,” he noted.

While discussing left-field choices, Chopra suggested that Faf du Plessis could be an option but felt Axar might ultimately be the franchise’s pick. “I think it’s going to be a close race. One has been retained, and the other has been bought. So one between the two, or else if they want to think absolutely left-field, then Faf du Plessis, who is not getting old at all. However, I have a feeling that it could be Axar,” he observed.

In another major captaincy development, Chopra expressed surprise at the appointment of Rajat Patidar as the new Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) captain for IPL 2025. “Rajat Patidar is RCB’s new leader. We shall find out how effective he would be. We thought it would be Kohli, but he is not. Rajat Patidar is the eighth captain. Before him, they had Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, Kevin Pietersen, Daniel Vettori, Shane Watson, Faf du Plessis, and Virat Kohli, who captained them for the longest time.”

While RCB have not won an IPL title, Chopra emphasised that they remain a competitive side. “Great players have captained this franchise. We measure a franchise’s success on the number of trophies they have lifted. They haven’t won even one, but it is not an unsuccessful franchise. It’s a decently successful franchise without a trophy. It’s not a team that remains at the bottom of the table or close to the wooden spoon,” he remarked.

In a hilarious and rather bizarre video that has surfaced on social media, Team India’s trio of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul seemed to have forgot picking up the ODI series trophy that they won after beating England 3-0. India completed the sweep against England on Wednesday after Rohit’s men secured a 142-run victory in the third and final match at Ahmedabad. As the boys celebrated the team’s win, a video showed Rohit, Rahul and Kohli walking past the trophy before realizing they had to pick it up too.

“Trophy hi bhool gaye [they forgot the trophy]!”, a fan wrote on social media while sharing the video which has now gone viral.

teeno ke teeno paagal, trophy hi bhul gayepic.twitter.com/IJhJPKqjwy

— T. (@iklamhaa) February 13, 2025

Team India absolutely bossed England in the 3-match series, emerging as the better side in all three departments. Skipper Rohit couldn’t be happier.

“There is a bit of freedom in the squad to go out there and play the way you want. The World Cup (2023) was a perfect example of that. We want to continue to do that. There will be times it will not fall in place but that’s okay,” said Rohit in the post-match presentation.

He was very happy with team putting up a collective show and everyone putting up satisfactory performances.

“Very very pleasing (with the way the series went). We knew there would be challenges that we could face,” he added.

Without going into specifics, Rohit said India will be looking to further improve their game with the Champions Trophy, beginning on February 19, in mind.

“Obviously, there are certain things we are looking at and I am not going to stand here and explain those. It is our job as well to keep some consistency within the squad and the communication is clear.

“Obviously a champion team wants to get better every game and move forward from there,” he added.

Player of the match and series, Shubman Gill said the hundred was one of his better knocks because there was some help for fast bowlers initially.

“I was feeling good. I think this was one of the better knocks. The pitch was a bit tricky at the start so it’s satisfying. There was a bit for the fast bowlers.

“It was seaming, so the chat was to rotate strike and not lose wickets in Power Play, build on the momentum and take it from there,” he said.

With PTI Inputs