Team India’s 3 biggest weaknesses against Pakistan

India will take on the arch-rivals Pakistan in the high-octane clash in the ICC Champions Trophy 2025. The game will be played at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium in Dubai on February 23 at 2:30 PM (IST). Both teams will be going off in this game after playing their respective first games against New Zealand and Bangladesh, respectively.

Team India will be eyeing defeating Pakistan to strengthen their chances of qualifying for the semi-finals of the tournament. However, there might be some concerns for India that they will have to address before taking the field against the defending champions Pakistan in the highly anticipated game.

With that said, here we’ll look at Team India’s 3 biggest weaknesses against Pakistan in the upcoming Champions Trophy 2025 clash.

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Conundrum around new-ball bowling pair 

The Men in Blue will miss their star pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah who was ruled out of the tournament due to his back injury. Bumrah’s absence has also left Indian team management with a big question about selecting their pair of pace bowlers to bowl with the new ball.

Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana, and veteran pacer Mohammed Shami are the three pacers in India’s squad for the Champions Trophy 2025. So, there will be a big conundrum to pick between Arshdeep and Harshit to join Mohammed Shami for the new ball duties, especially in the first 8-10 overs of the game.

Lower middle-order batting

India have strong top-order and middle-order in their batting lineup, including the likes of skipper Rohit Sharma, vice-captain Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, and Rishabh Pant or KL Rahul. But there will also be questions for an Indian think tank to come up with a solution if top-order or middle-order fails to deliver.

In that case, India don’t have a strong lower middle-order that can be expected to take the score to a big total, be it batting first or chasing the target in the second innings. It might also be one of the 3 weaknesses of India in their game against Pakistan.

Indian top order's issues against swing bowling which Naseem could expose

In the last couple of India vs Pakistan clashes in the major ICC tournaments, India’s top order has been seen struggling against the pace and swing of the young Pakistan pacer Naseem Shah. He is expected to open the bowling for the Men in Green alongside star pace spearhead Shaheen Afridi with the new ball.

So, there are very many chances that the Indian top order’s struggle against the swing bowling might be exposed against Naseem Shah. It will also put extra pressure on the batters, including the likes of Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, and Virat Kohli. 

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