Kevin Pietersen picks India's playing 11 for 2025 Champions Trophy; ignores Rishabh Pant and Harshit Rana

Former England batter Kevin Pietersen has picked his Indian playing 11 for the upcoming 2025 Champions Trophy, which starts on February 19. Pietersen ignored pacer Harshit Rana, wicketkeeper batter Rishabh Pant, and the spin duo of Varun Chakravarthy and Washington Sundar from his lineup.

Rana played in all three ODIs of the recent England series - his first in the 50-over format. He was selected to the final Champions Trophy squad, replacing ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah from the provisional squad.

Meanwhile, Varun debuted for India in ODIs during the England series before replacing Yashasvi Jaiswal in the final Champions Trophy squad.

Before naming his final Indian playing XI in a discussion on Star Sports, Pietersen said [via Hindustan Times]:

"Chakravarthy's been very good, but I think Kuldeep has been very good in terms of what he's produced and the numbers that he's produced. I like the left-arm seamer, so that's why Arshdeep starts for me. You've got your three seamers there. Shami, Arshdeep and Hardik. Then you've got Jadeja, who's always my first pick. So Jadeja and the rest, Kuldeep, Axar."

India will be part of Group A in the Champions Trophy, with Pakistan, Bangladesh, and New Zealand. Their tournament opener will be against Bangladesh in Dubai on February 20.

Kevin Pietersen's India XI for Champions Trophy:

Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Axar Patel, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav.

"We are one spinner too many if not two" - R Ashwin

Varun Chakravarthy was the fifth spinner included in the Indian Champions Trophy squad [Credit: Getty]

Recently retired off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has questioned India's decision to pick five spinners in their 15-member squad for the upcoming Champions Trophy.

While the Men in Blue already had Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, and Kuldeep Yadav in the provisional squad, Varun Chakravarthy's recent T20I heroics made him a fifth spinner in the final squad.

Talking about the same on his YouTube channel, Ashwin said [quoted by India Today]:

"What I don't understand is the number of spinners we are taking to Dubai. Five spinners and we have made Yashasvi Jaiswal sit out. Yeah, I understand that we take three or four spinners for a tour. But five spinners in Dubai? I don't know. I think we are one spinner too many if not two."

India will look to continue their impressive run in Champion Trophies, having advanced to the final in the previous two editions in 2013 and 2017 and winning in 2013.