Champions Trophy 2025: Strongest Team India Squad Players List

Rohit Sharma to lead as we look at the strongest squad and players list for Team India for ICC Champions Trophy 2025. 

As Team India secured their first ICC trophy in more than 10 years, the expectations from the Indian team seem to have skyrocketed. Team India have always come closer to winning the trophy since 2013, but it was the resistance or the last hurdle they could not cross. With 2024 finally being that year, just like a breakout in the Stock Market, it feels like this is the breakout for Team India with many trophies to come by their side.  

Post the success of the T20 World Cup 2024, Team India shall be eyeing their next ICC trophy, which is 8 months from now, the Champions Trophy 2025. 2017 was the last time the Champions Trophy was played, and 8 years hence, the format is back with Pakistan being the host. Coincidently, it was Pakistan against whom India lost the Champions Trophy final, and they will be the host for the next edition.

The format is anyway a hot topic currently in the cricketing world as the hosts are Pakistan. BCCI has always had a hard stance of not flying their players to Pakistan, and the thing may remain for the Champions Trophy as well. While Pakistan have highlighted their desire for India to play all their matches in Lahore, BCCI is yet to confirm the same. If India do not travel to Pakistan, they may play all their matches in UAE mostly. 

Champions Trophy 2025 Format

The Champions Trophy as we all know is a 50-over tournament where the top 8 teams based on ICC rankings play a round-robin format. Each team plays against each others once, thus a total of 7 group stage matches per team. The top 4 teams then proceed to play the Semi-finals, and then the final. With such a format, BCCI and selectors will once again focus on players who are good in the 50-overs format. 

Now, the trophy is almost 8 months away, and a lot can happen in terms of the player combination and form. But interestingly, India play only 6 ODIs before the Champions Trophy. So, we should most likely see a majority of the ODI World Cup 2023 squad getting retained for the Champions Trophy as well. So, taking that as a base, let’s look at the strongest Champions Trophy 2025 squad and players list for Team India. 

Champions Trophy 2025 Best Team India squad List:

The Champions Trophy 2025 will see the regular 50-over format, hence a lot of players from ODI World Cup 2023 will be repeated. So, if we talk about the confirmed batters, we should see Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill, and Shreyas Iyer. All four batters have been the key pillars of Team India in ODI Cricket, and they should continue to do so for Champions Trophy 2025 as well. 

If we talk about the wicket-keepers, we should see KL Rahul as the primary wicket-keeper, and instead of Ishan Kishan, India will mostly opt for Rishabh Pant, who has already impressed in the T20 World Cup after making a comeback. With Pant there, he can act as a backup keeper as well backup opener, if required. However, KL Rahul should continue to remain as India’s primary keeper for now. 

Talking about the all-rounders, India are likely to continue with all three of them, that is Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, and Axar Patel. There are no better all-rounders in India at the moment other than these three, so India have no other option but to select all three. Other than these three, there’s Washington Sundar in ODIs, but he may mostly remain as a key backup all-rounder.

In terms of bowlers, the four confirmed names are Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, and Mohammed Siraj. All four were also a part of Team India’s ODI World Cup 2023 squad, and they will continue to remain as first-choice bowlers if all are fit and healthy. In terms of priority, Shami, Bumrah, and Kuldeep will feature in all the matches. 

The Doubtful Starters

Now, talking about the doubtful players, the main selection point shall be whether India persist with Suryakumar Yadav, or bring in a finisher like Rinku Singh in the squad. Now, SKY did get an opportunity in the ODI World Cup 2023 to stake his claim as an ODI player. But he wasn’t able to. So, it looks unlikely India will continue with SKY, and instead will give Rinku Singh an opportunity to perform. 

The second doubt that India may have is whether to select an extra spinner like Yuzvendra Chahal, or an extra pacer like Arshdeep Singh. This will be a tricky option, but with UAE pitches mostly assisting pace, India are likely to select an extra pacer, and as the fourth-best pacer, there is no better than Arshdeep Singh at the moment for Team India. In addition to being the only left-arm pacer, he also has a good ICC tournament experience. 

Champions Trophy 2025 Strongest Squad List for Team India

1. Rohit Sharma (c)
2. Rinku Singh
3. Shreyas Iyer
4. Shubman Gill
5. Virat Kohli
6. KL Rahul (wk)
7. Rishabh Pant (wk)
8. Axar Patel
9. Hardik Pandya
10. Ravindra Jadeja
11. Arshdeep Singh
12. Jasprit Bumrah
13. Kuldeep Yadav
14. Mohammed Shami
15. Mohammed Siraj

So, that’s about the strongest Team India squad list for the Champions Trophy 2025. Overall, 13 players are sure-short starters if all are fit and healthy. The only debatable options are Rinku Singh and Arshdeep Singh. While both should feature in the squad, as an alternative, India may look at Ruturaj Gaikwad, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal, and Washington Sundar. 

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