India's predicted XI against Australia in Champions Trophy 2025: Varun Chakravarthy holds position, Arshdeep Singh excluded

Varun Chakravarthy seized the opportunity to shine in the Champions Trophy and exceeded all expectations. His impressive performance included a five-wicket haul, playing a pivotal role in India's convincing victory over New Zealand in their final group match. With Chakravarthy replacing Harshit Rana in the lineup and the conditions favoring spinners, it seems unlikely that the pacer will reclaim his spot anytime soon.

Even if he does return, Chakravarthy won't be the man making way. Moreover, Rohit Sharma would be leaning towards making no changes and it is how it is most probably going to be with India having to deal with the formidable challenge of facing Australia in a big ICC tournament fixture.

Hardik Pandya performed second pacer duties very well indeed against New Zealand. With Mohammed Shami still looking far from being back to his best, India will be relying on Pandya to continue providing the goods with the ball in hand in the first 10 overs.

Importantly for them, Pandya also seemed to be in good touch with the bat against New Zealand, providing a very good late surge that took India close to 250. Shreyas Iyer has been metronomic at No.4, showing that he has the skills to hunker down or go big depending on the situation. Axar Patel has been a revelation at No.5 as well and he seems to have improved his fielding skills as well, in addition to being as reliable as ever with the ball. Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli have both had their moments in the group stage as well.

At the end of it all, though, India would be hoping that Rohit himself strikes the jackpot this time. His efforts to go as big as possible early on has clipped his contributions with the bat thus far in the tournament and it was his 92 off 41 balls that made the difference in India's victory over Australia in the 2024 T20 World Cup - a rare win for them in this fixture as part of a big tournament in the years since the pandemic. The ideal scenario for India would be their top three of Rohit, Gill and Kohli all firing to the best that they can, regardless of whether they are batting first or chasing.

India’s playing XI vs New Zealand:

Openers: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill

Top and middle order: Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk)

All-rounders: Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja

Bowlers: Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy

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