India sprung a surprise by picking tearaway quick Harshit Rana over left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh in their opening match against Bangladesh at the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 today at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.
Bangladesh skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto won the toss and opted to bat, on a sunny day, much to the delight of India captain Rohit Sharma, who admitted after the toss that he would have fielded first anyway if he had won the toss.
True to expectations, the Men in Blue went for a two pacers-three spinners bowling combination but their choice of bowlers was interesting. Though left-arm quick Arshdeep Singh, who has been a regular in the Indian T20I team, was expected to share the new ball with veteran Mohammed Shami, the team management chose to go with young pacer Harshit Rana, who had an impressive outing against England recently.
Though Singh’s variation as a left-arm pacer would have added another dimension to the Indian pace attack – with Shami and third seamer Hardik Pandya being right-arm quicks – India probably felt that Rana’s ability to hit the deck hard and hustle the batsman would prove handy against Bangladesh.
ICC Champions Trophy 2025: India-Bangladesh match pitch report
It is a fresh pitch, though the ILT20 tournament was played here. It looks dry and dew is not expected to set in later in the day, and hence, is unlikely to be a deciding factor.
Teams:
India:
Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul(w), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, Harshit Rana, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav.
Bangladesh:
Tanzid Hasan, Soumya Sarkar, Najmul Hossain Shanto(c), Towhid Hridoy, Mushfiqur Rahim(w), Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Jaker Ali, Rishad Hossain, Tanzim Hasan Sakib, Taskin Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman.
