India Predicted Playing 11 vs Bangladesh for Match 2 of 2025 Champions Trophy

India will kick off their 2025 Champions Trophy campaign with a clash against Bangladesh at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Thursday, February 20. The Men in Blue have been in excellent form in ODI cricket lately and recently thrashed England 3-0.

India will be without Jasprit Bumrah, with Harshit Rana added to the squad as his replacement. Opener Yashasvi Jaiswal has also been downgraded to a reserve in favor of spinner Varun Chakaravarthy. Despite these changes, it's fairly easy to ascertain the team's best playing XI.

India's squad for the 2025 Champions Trophy: Rohit Sharma (captain), Shubman Gill (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja.

On that note, here is India's predicted playing XI for Match 2 of the 2025 Champions Trophy.

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Openers: Rohit Sharma (c) and Shubman Gill

India v Australia: Final - ICC Men's Cricket World Cup India 2023 - Source: Getty

India's trusted opening combination of Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill will take to the field against Bangladesh. Both players hammered a century each in the recent England ODIs, with Gill even taking up a place as the top-ranked batter in the world in the 50-over format. The duo will want to start the tournament on a good note.

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Middle order: Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel

India v Australia: Final - ICC Men's Cricket World Cup India 2023 - Source: Getty

Picking India's middle order is also an easy task.

Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, and Ravindra Jadeja played integral roles in the team's run to the final of the 2023 World Cup. Despite the threat of a few changes, the quartet seems ready to reprise those roles once again.

Hardik Pandya got injured midway through that ICC tournament, but he's fit and firing now. He will be the team's leading fast-bowling all-rounder, with Axar Patel serving as a secondary spin-bowling all-round option. Axar, who has been in excellent form, may also be used as a floater up the order when needed.

Rishabh Pant's inclusion has been floated as a possibility, but Rahul seems to be India's first-choice keeper in ODIs and is likely to be persisted with.

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Lower order: Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh

India Portraits - ICC Champions Trophy 2025 - Source: Getty

Varun Chakaravarthy made his ODI debut against England recently, but he's unlikely to be picked ahead of Kuldeep Yadav. The left-arm wrist-spinner only recently returned to action and is still finding his rhythm.

Harshit Rana is an option, but the Men in Blue seem primed to pick Arshdeep Singh and Mohammed Shami as their first-choice new-ball pair. While Shami seems to have lost a yard of pace, Arshdeep is relatively untested in the 50-over format. The duo will want to use the clash against Bangladesh to get into their ideal form later in the tournament.