Head coach Gautam Gambhir and Chief Selector Ajit Agarkar recently had a heated discussion about the Indian team's middle-order combination for the ICC Champions Trophy 2025.
India's final squad for the tournament was announced on February 11 with Varun Chakravarthy and Harshit Rana being added to the squad. The change saw Yashasvi Jaiswal being named in the travel reserves alongside Mohd Siraj and Shivam Dube.
Meanwhile, Gautam Gambhir has been favouring a left-right combination in the Indian playing XI, especially in the middle order. The promotion of Axar Patel in the batting order in the ODI series against England is an evident example of Gambhir's strategies.
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India's Middle-Order Conundrum Remains Ahead Of Champions Trophy 2025
Since Gambhir has taken over as head coach, he has been trying to make the Indian batting lineup look like a heavyweight. Previously, during Ravi Shastri's coaching stint, India had a top-heavy batting lineup with Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan doing the majority of the run-scoring.
However, since Gambhir has taken over, he has trying to bring batting depth by adding good-middle-order batters like Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul. Iyer was critical to India's success in the ODI series against England. He scored 181 runs at 60.33 including two fifties.
Iyer was in good batting form in the Engalnd series. India out-performed England with the bat on the back of their performance from the middle-order. They (No. 4-7) collectively scored 375 runs (among four players) in three innings at a strike rate of 116.42, with three fifties and Iyer did most of the scoring. However, a report in the Times of India revealed that there was a "heated" selection meeting over Iyer's retention.
Meanwhile, Gambhir has already confirmed that KL Rahul will keep wickets for India in the upcoming Champions Trophy. Meanwhile, Agarkar, in his press conference last month hinted that Pant would be India's first-choice keeper in the tournament. However, with Gambhir and Rohit are willing to give Rahul the long run as the specialist keeper-batter. This puts doubts on how India are planning to use Rishabh Pant in the tournament.
"Selection committee chief Ajit Agarkar, while announcing the Champions Trophy squad, had claimed Pant was the first-choice wicketkeeper. As it turned out, Pant is the only player in the squad who didn't get a game in the three ODIs in the England series. Sources indicated that there had been heated debate in the selection meeting around retaining Shreyas Iyer in the team and over the second wicketkeeper's slot," read the TOI report.
Meanwhile, the Indian team has landed in Dubai with the Men in Blue playing their first game against Bangladesh on February 20. They play against Pakistan on February 23 and the Kiwis last on March 2.
