Bangladesh captain Najmul Hossain Shanto won the toss and decided to bat first in their first Group A match of the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy at the Dubai International Stadium on Thursday.
India comes into the contest as one of the favorites, but Bangladesh have the potential to pull off an upset. Having won the toss, Shanto was pleased with the preparation of the team, announcing their bowling attack of three seamers and two spinners.
"It seems like a good wicket, so we would like to score runs. We have to play good cricket today, and the boys are confident," he said.
Conversely, India's skipper, Rohit Sharma, said that he would have decided to bowl first. Regarding team changes, he confirmed that Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammed Shami have returned in place of Washington Sundar and Arshdeep Singh.
We have played here a couple of years ago, and we used to feel the ball comes on better under lights. Everything seems good, and everybody is fit and ready to go. Let's hope we begin well. There's no looking back; every game is important in this tournament," Sharma stated.
Thursday's game will be on a new pitch, and there has been no dew this year as the game carried on into the night. The straight boundary is 82 meters and the square boundaries are 74 meters and 62 meters respectively.
Playing XIs:
India: Rohit Sharma (captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, Harshit Rana, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav
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