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Rohit Sharma-led Team India is all set to take on arch-rivals Pakistan in their next Champions Trophy 2025 clash, scheduled for Sunday, February 23 at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium in Dubai. While the Men in Blue will be coming after registering a convincing six-wicket over Bangladesh in their opening match, Pakistan registered a 60-run drubbing against New Zealand.
As they will next be taking on each other at the DICS, the Indian team were seen hitting the nets on Saturday, February 21. While Virat Kohli became the topic of discussion after he arrived three hours earlier from the scheduled timing, star Indian wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant was a notable absentee.
Why did Rishabh Pant not attend India’s training session ahead of Pakistan clash?
The Indian wicketkeeper, who hasn’t been head coach Gautam Gambhir’s first pick in the ODIs, missed the training session at DICS. However, later on the eve of the much-anticipated match, India’s vice-captain Shubman Gill opened up on the same and confirmed that Pant has been down with viral fever.
The illness-induced absence is unlikely to hurt India’s playing XI against Pakistan with the team going with KL Rahul as their preferred option. "KL is our No 1 wicketkeeper and this is what I can say at the moment. Rishabh Pant will get his chance but at the moment it is KL who has done well and we cannot play two wicketkeeper-batters," Gambhir said after the series against England.
India’s squad for ICC Champions Trophy, 2025
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, Mohd. Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Varun Chakaravarthy.
Non-travelling substitutes: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Mohammed Siraj and Shivam Dube.
