India vs Pakistan Champions Trophy 2025 Best Playing 11 for Both

February 22, 2025 Abhay Kothari Axar Patel, Babar Azam, Champions Trophy, Cricgasm, Cricket, Cricket News, Hardik Pandya, India Cricket Team, India vs Pakistan, Jasprit Bumrah, KL Rahul, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, ODI Cricket, Pakistan Cricket Team, Ravindra Jadeja, Rohit Sharma, Shaheen Afridi, Shreyas Iyer, Shubman Gill, Team India, Virat Kohli 6 min read

Virat Kohli and Babar Azam head-to-head in the group stage best possible playing 11 for the India vs Pakistan Champions Trophy 2025.

The moment is finally here. Yes, it is the clash of the mother of all matches as India take on Pakistan in Group A clash of Champions Trophy 2025. It’s an important match for both teams as a win here for Team India will confirm their qualification for the Champions Trophy 2025 semi-final. Whereas a defeat for Pakistan will almost confirm their elimination from the tournament.

The last time these two teams met in the ICC Champions Trophy, Pakistan humiliated India in a one-sided final in 2017. It was the Sarfaraz Khan-led side that defeated the Virat Kohli-led side by a huge margin. Whereas in the last ICC tournament match, India came out victorious in the T20 World 2024 clash in the USA. But the 2025 scenes seem different as we have two contrasting teams on table.

Team India are the favourites going into the game. The team is much stronger, and well-equipped in all departments. Barring the loss of Jasprit Bumrah, there are hardly any weaknesses in the team. Whereas Pakistan look depleted in most of the departments. The bowling looks sub-par, the batting lacks the punch, and there are hardly any all-rounders in the side. With such opposite team combinations, it looks difficult for Pakistan to overcome this powerpack Indian side.

India vs Pakistan CT 2025 Key Match Details

Tournament: Champions Trophy 2025

Match Type: Group Stage Match – India vs Pak

Where: Dubai, UAE

When: February 23, 2025, 2:30 pm IST

The pitch conditions in Dubai haven’t been kind to the batters. Batting under lights has been difficult, and that’s pretty contrasting to what we usually see in Dubai. So, in an ideal scenario, if India bat first, expect this to be a high-scoring contest. But if Pakistan bat first, it should be a 250-ish kind of wicket. But to tackle this pitch, what’s the playing 11 that India vs Pakistan will witness for the group A clash of Champions Trophy 2025? Well, let’s analyze the squad of both teams.

Team India Champions Trophy 2025 Official Squad and Players List

Rohit Sharma (c)
Shreyas Iyer
Shubman Gill
Virat Kohli
KL Rahul (wk)
Rishabh Pant (wk)
Axar Patel
Hardik Pandya
Ravindra Jadeja
Washington Sundar
Arshdeep Singh
Harshit Rana
Kuldeep Yadav
Mohammed Shami
Varun Chakravarthy

India vs Pakistan CT 2025 ODI Playing 11 Analyzed

If we talk about Team India’s playing 11, the teams may continue with the same winning combination that played against Bangladesh. The inclusion of Harshit Rana in the team could be debatable, but after his solid performance, even that debate will be put to rest for now. So, Team India should continue with the same 3-pace and 3-spin bowling combination.

However, all eyes will be on Virat Kohli, who had a poor start to the tournament against Bangladesh. In a rather low-scoring contest, Virat Kohli had the ideal opportunity to get back to form. Unfortunately, Kohli ended up playing a dull innings. But Pakistan is one team that Kohli has always loved playing against. So, expect Kohli to come out of his shell, give a solid performance against Pakistan, and stamp his authority as the King of the game.

India vs Pakistan CT 2025 Best Playing 11 for Indian Team

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

Champions Trophy 2025 Official Squad List for Pakistan

Babar Azam
Imam-ul-Haq
Saud Shakeel
Tayyab Tahir
Usman Khan
Kamran Ghulam
Khusdil Shah
Mohammad Rizwan (c&wk)
Salman Agha
Faheem Ashraf
Abrar Ahmed
Haris Rauf
Mohammad Hasnain
Naseem Shah
Shaheen Afridi

Pakistan suffered a big blow in the first match of the tournament when their star opener Fakhar Zaman got injured. Such was the severity of the injury that he was ruled out of the tournament, and Imam-ul-Haq was named as the replacement. With Fakhar not there, Pakistan’s batting looks even more weak as compared to what it was. Nevertheless, expect Pakistan to make change, and that’s to bring Imam-ul-Haq in the playing 11 for Fakhar Zaman.

If Pakistan don’t decide to go ahead with Imam-ul-Haq, they can ask Saud Shakeel to open with Babar Azam, and play Kamran Ghulam as the replacement for Fakhar Zaman. However, this move will only weaken their batting, and they would not like that ideally. But whichever team Pakistan deploys, it is a no match to this strong Indian team that looks complete in all areas.

India vs Pak CT 2025 Best Playing 11 for Pakistan