Team India went with an unchanged XI for their second Group A match against Pakistan in the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 on Sunday. After beating Bangladesh in their tournament opener, India went ahead with the same combination for the high-profile clash against Pakistan, leaving the likes of Rishabh Pant, Varun Chakravarthy, Arshdeep Singh, and Washington Sundar on the bench. When India great Sunil Gavaskar was asked about his opinion of India's XI, he gave a straight-forward response, suggesting there was no need to India to make changes.
"Why would they change?" said Gavaskar. "It's a slow wicket and they have a winning combination. One change they could've made is bringing in Varun Chakravarthy but Mohammed Shami picked up 5 wickets in the last match and Harshit Rana didn't do anything wrong."
The last time India and Pakistan clashed in a Champions Trophy event was during the 2017 edition's final, when Virat Kohli-led star-studded unit was humbled by Men in Green at the peak of star batters' run-chasing powers, being skittled out for 158 runs while chasing a mammoth 338 runs which Pakistan reached on the back of a century from Fakhar Zaman.
Avenging this would be fresh on the minds of players who were part of this heart-wrenching defeat, and their fans would no doubt relish every moment of India dominating Pakistan with bat or ball.
"Will bat first, looks like a good surface. Want to put up a good target. Every match is important in ICC events, we will keep things normal. The boys are familiar with these conditions, we have done well here and we want to do our best today. We lost our last game, but it is past for us now. One change - Fakhar is out, Imam is in," Rizwan said after winning the toss.
Men in Blue skipper Rohit Sharma said that there is no change in the team for this match.
"Doesn't really matter, they won the toss so we'll bowl first. Looks similar to the last game, the surface is on the slower side. We have an experienced unit in batting, so we know what we need to do if the pitches get slower. Need an overall performance from the team - with bat and ball. The last game wasn't an easy one for us, which is always nice. You want to be under pressure and test yourself. We are playing the same team," Rohit said.