Champions Trophy: Arshdeep Singh likely to share new ball duties with Mohammed Shami in opening match vs Bangladesh: Reports

With just three days to go for India’s opening match against Bangladesh, the fans are excited for Champions Trophy 2025 to kick. According to reports carried by PTI, it has come to light that Arshdeep Singh is set to share the new ball duties with Mohammed Shami. The 26-year-old left-arm pacer as per reports is preferred over Harshit Rana for the opening game on Thursday. 

Arshdeep Singh played in the final ODI versus England in Ahmedabad and picked 2/33 to help India win the match. Harshit Rana, on the other hand, picked six wickets in the three matches but was expensive in all the matches. So far the left-arm seamer has played nine ODI matches and picked 14 wickets. 

PTI’s report stated “Harshit Rana has been the flavour of the season as far as India's emerging crop of fast bowlers is concerned but one of head coach Gautam Gambhir's finds is unlikely to start in India's playing eleven in the Champions Trophy with Arshdeep Singh still considered way ahead in terms of talent and quality," 

Team India embarks on Champions Trophy hunt sans Jasprit Bumrah 

Harshit Rana was added to the squad at the last moment after key pacer Jasprit Bumrah failed to recover from his injuries. The 31-year-old had injured himself during the final Test versus Australia in Sydney and didn’t bowl in the second innings. 

Bumrah was initially named in the ODI squad with Harshit Rana as his backup. Once news of Bumrah’s unavailability came to the fore, Rana was drafted in as the replacement. Varun Chakravarthy who made his ODI debut during the second game against England was also included as a replacement for Yashasvi Jaiswal. 

Former India batter Devang Gandhi during his chat with PTI said that he would prefer Arshdeep over Harshit for the first game. Gandhi said “Harshit has improved by leaps and bounds in terms of reducing his weight and has become sharper in terms of speed. But if I had to choose one among the two as Mohammed Shami's partner, it has to be Arshdeep as he can swing the ball both ways and is a left-arm. I would be a trifle surprised if Harshit starts ahead of Arshdeep."