3 areas where India's Champions Trophy 2025 squad is weaker than the 2017 team

India are set to begin their 2025 Champions Trophy campaign against Bangladesh on Thusday, February 20, at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. The Men In Blue ended as runners-up in the previous edition of the tournament which was held in 2017.

India had an exceptional squad and made it to the final, where they fell short and lost to arch-rivals Pakistan in the 2017 edition. They last won the tournament in 2013, when they beat England in a closely contested and thrilling final.

Ahead of the 2025 Champions Trophy, the Indian team displayed solid form in their recent ODI series against England at home, completing a 3-0 whitewash. They have built a potent squad for the 2025 edition of the ICC event. Captain Rohit Sharma and his troops will be keen to go the extra mile and better the performance from the previous edition.

However, there are certain areas of concern heading into the 2025 Champions Trophy. That said, let us take a look at three such areas where the Indian squad appears weaker than the 2017 team.

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#3 India had a better mix of left-handed batters in the 2017 squad

India's squad in the 2017 Champions Trophy had some big names in the batting department. Talking of left-handers, they had Shikhar Dhawan, Yuvraj Singh, and Ravindra Jadeja in the mix.

Dhawan was India's leading run-scorer in the tournament while an experienced Yuvraj played some key knocks in the tournament as well. This time around, the Indian team has more left-handed batters such as Axar Patel, Rishabh Pant, Washington Sundar, and Jadeja.

However, Jadeja has struggled with his batting form of late as far as the one-day format is concerned. As for Rishabh Pant, the dynamic batter has not had enough game time in recent times either. Washington Sundar's batting has not been upto the mark in this format as only Axar Patel has done well in the recent ODIs against England batting up the order.

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#2 Virat Kohli's inconsistent form with the bat

Virat Kohli has not been at his best with the bat in recent times - Source: Getty

Virat Kohli, who captained the team in the 2017 Champions Trophy, had a rather successful tournament with the bat last time around. He scored 258 runs from five games, including an unbeaten 96 in the semi-final against Bangladesh.

However, his recent form is a huge area of concern as he has failed to be consistent. While he missed the first ODI against England, he scored only five runs in the second game. He scored an impressive fifty in the third ODI.

Given his extended lean patch in recent times and just the lone fifty in the third ODI, his form is a concern. Moreover, India's batting depth lower down the order with the likes of Sundar and Pant (lack of game time) is also a concern which will put huge responsibility on the likes of Axar and Hardik Pandya.

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#1 India's 2025 Champions Trophy pace attack appears weak and inexperienced

India's biggest area of concern in the 2025 Champions Trophy will be their pace attack. In the 2017 edition, India had four frontline pacers in the squad in the likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammad Shami, and Umesh Yadav along with Hardik Pandya as the fifth pacer.

This time around, India will miss Bumrah, who has been ruled out due to a lower back injury. The Men In Blue have gone with only three frontline pacers in Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana, and Shami.

Harshit Rana, who replaced Bumrah in the squad, made his ODI debut in the England series and is heavily inexperienced. India have picked Harshit over an experienced Mohammed Siraj, who is a part of the non-travelling reserves.

Moreover, Arshdeep is also relatively inexperienced in the format, having played only nine ODIs so far. Mohammad Shami, who has just returned from injury, has not shown enough promise and is far from his best as well, being the only established pacer in this format in the current squad.