Team India maintained an unchanged lineup for their crucial ICC Champions Trophy 2025 match against Pakistan, having won their opener against Bangladesh. Sunil Gavaskar endorsed this decision, highlighting the team’s winning combination and noting Mohammed Shami’s impressive performance with five wickets in the previous match. India seeks to avenge their 2017 final loss to Pakistan, where they suffered a significant defeat. Captain Rohit Sharma acknowledged the slower pitch conditions, confirming that their experienced batting unit would be prepared. Pakistan’s captain, Rizwan, announced a lineup change with Imam replacing Fakhar. Both teams aim for a strong performance in this high-stakes match.
For their second Group A match against Pakistan in the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 on Sunday, Team India opted for an unchanged lineup. Having triumphed over Bangladesh in their tournament opener, India maintained the same combination for the highly anticipated clash against Pakistan, leaving Rishabh Pant, Varun Chakravarthy, Arshdeep Singh, and Washington Sundar on the bench. When legendary cricketer Sunil Gavaskar was asked for his thoughts on India’s XI, he responded candidly, indicating that changes weren’t necessary.
“Why would they change?” Gavaskar remarked. “It’s a slow wicket, and they have a winning combination. One adjustment they could’ve considered is bringing in Varun Chakravarthy, but Mohammed Shami took 5 wickets in the previous match, and Harshit Rana didn’t do anything wrong.”
The last encounter between India and Pakistan in a Champions Trophy event occurred during the 2017 final, where Virat Kohli’s star-studded team was overwhelmed by the Men in Green. While chasing a daunting target of 338 runs, they were bowled out for just 158, with Fakhar Zaman contributing a century to Pakistan’s campaign.
The desire for vengeance remains fresh in the minds of players from that painful defeat, and undoubtedly, their fans would savor every moment of India’s dominance over Pakistan, whether with bat or ball.
“We will bat first, as it appears to be a good surface. We want to set a strong target. Every match is crucial in ICC events, and we aim to maintain our routine. The players are well-acquainted with these conditions; we’ve performed well here and intend to give our best today. The last game is behind us now. One change – Fakhar is out, and Imam is in,” Rizwan stated after winning the toss.
Men in Blue captain Rohit Sharma confirmed there would be no changes to the team for this match.
“It doesn’t really matter; they won the toss, so we’ll bowl first. The conditions look similar to the last game, with the surface being on the slower side. Our batting unit is experienced, so we understand what needs to be done if the pitches slow down. We need a collective performance from the team with both bat and ball. The previous game was challenging for us, which is beneficial. You want to be under pressure to test yourself. We’re going in with the same team,” Rohit said.
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