We are just a day away from Team India’s first match in the Champions Trophy 2025, and there is a problem in the pace department that looms large for Rohit Sharma, coach Gautam Gambhir, and selector Ajit Agarkar. The team, that is perhaps the best in the tournament, at least on paper, are scheduled to open their campaign against Bangladesh in Dubai on Thursday, but their second pacer along with Mohammed Shami is still undecided.
Harshit Rana vs Arshdeep Singh for Champions Trophy
Given that India has a pace spearhead who isn’t in the best bowling rhythm, to choose a partner for Shami would be rather tough — when the choice is between two inexperienced candidates — Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana. There isn’t any right or wrong in what the team goes with, but then the stakeholders will have to certainly go with an option that is relatively better.
If the India-England ODI series is anything to go by — there Harshit Rana played all three matches claiming six wickets, while Arshdeep Singh played only one — bagging two wickets. That only goes on to show that for now, maybe because of his height and extra pace, the Delhi lad might be the frontrunner.. given India also needs a wicket-taker in the middle-overs.
India Need Perfect Partner for Mohammed Shami
On the flip side, Arshdeep is excellent at the start and in death, and has bagged 14 wickets in 9 matches so far. He is a lot more experienced in white-ball cricket, having played 63 T20Is too, picking up 99 wickets.. so experience he does make the cut. Plus, he will be able to bring the ball into the right-hander. But then, again, Harshit has been Gambhir’s go to man — be it the Aussie Test series, or India-England T20Is or ODIs.
Ricky Ponting Supports..
Experts feel that Arhsdeep should play too. Ricky Ponting told ICC, “I would go with the left-armer and I’d go with Arshdeep (to replace Bumrah). We know how good he’s been in T20 cricket and if you think about the skill set, he probably provides a similar skill set to what Bumrah does with new ball and death overs and that’s what India will miss.”
In the end, as discussed earlier, Harshit might just pip Arshdeep, at least for the India-Bangladesh contest, but he would really have to prove his worth. Till now in his career he has been expensive, and leaked runs at 6.95, and non-performance in the opening encounter might just push Rohit Sharma to go with the more-reliable Arshdeep.
Team India Squad
Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill (Vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (WK), Rishabh Pant (WK), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Varun Chakravarthy.
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