Washington Sundar is likely to feature in India’s Champions Trophy 2025 opener against Bangladesh to be played in Dubai on Thursday, with India seemingly set to replace either Ravindra Jadeja or Axar Patel. From the pictures of the pre-match show that was broadcast live on Star Sports, it looks like the axe will fall on Jadeja. India head coach Gautam Gambhir was spotted in what looked like a very heated exchange with Jadeja, which Star Sports analysts Abhinav Mukund, Piyush Chawla and Mike Hesson believe has a fair amount to do with Gambhir letting Jadeja know that he was not going to be a part of India’s XI against Bangladesh. Moreover, India captain Rohit Sharma was also in conversation with Axar Patel.
India has gone in with two conventional spinners alongside three spin-bowling all-rounders for the Champions Trophy. Like Jadeja and Axar, India is highly unlikely to go in with the same combination against Bangladesh, a team that has many left-handed batsmen in their top seven, especially considering the left-handers only tactic. However, the top three of Bangladesh’s batting order has also some left-handers with openers Tanzid Hasan and Soumya Sarkar followed by captain Najmul Hossain Shanto.
“There are plenty of left-handed batsmen in the Bangladesh playing XI. But these two Indians have performed exceedingly well. But I think their first match should have included Jadeja and Axar. I think Khan had the option of using Kuldeep because he is left arm orthodox and he bowls to left-handers,” former India leg spinner Piyush Chawla said.
Mike Hesson, a former New Zealand and Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s coach had more to say about Gambhir’s body language and suggested that he was indicating to Jadeja that Washington Sundar will start the match instead of him.
“Jadeja is not playing,” Hesson said when asked his opinion regarding some of the visuals of Gambhir speaking to Jadeja and those were especially the ones when the coach ended up rubbing the shoulders of the all-rounder. “From the video, it appears that there is a form of instruction being given to him that you are not playing. (Gambhir is saying), ‘That’s my decision. I have made it. You may not agree with it but thank you very much. You may go on to play the next one, but for the first match, we are using the off-spinner,’” said Hesson.
Why Jadeja is being dropped?
Having already retired from T20s, Jadeja has been part of the Indian set up in ODIs for the past 12 years. His most trusted understudy for the longest period has been Axar Patel. Axar, for example, lost a chance to play in the ODI World Cup as he was summoned to the squad, instead of Ashwin who the management decided to include in the last minute. Regardless, Axar has made significant progress in all three formats of the game and has established himself as India’s leading all round left-arm spinner in white ball cricket.
Most likely, Jadeja will be preferred over Axar in this case and that is the feeling surrounding the opener of the Champions Trophy.
Now, Sundar is Gambhir’s pick. Gambhir is also believed to be quite supportive of the Tamil Nadu all-rounder just like Harshit Rana and Nitish Kumar Reddy.