KL Rahul over Rishabh Pant in Champions Trophy 2025? BCCI asks stylish right-hander to play ODIs against England

KL Rahul is likely to be preferred over Rishabh Pant as the date for the India's squad announcement for the Champions Trophy 2025 draws near. Rumours flew that Rahul, who had a mixed outing in Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT), will be given rest in the white-ball series against England ahead of the mega event, along with the likes of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, etc. 

The stylish right-hander even decided to opt out of the Karnataka squad for the Vijay Hazare Trophy knockouts, which is already underway. However, in an U-turn, the BCCI decided to make Rahul play the ODIs against England to get adequate match practice ahead of Champions Trophy 2025, which starts next month in Pakistan and Dubai. 

Based on a TOI report, a source close to the developments said that BCCI has asked Rahul to be available for the three-match ODI series against England, which starts on February 6. 

“The selectors initially decided to rest Rahul, who plays in the middle order and is a wicketkeeper in the ODIs, from the entire white-ball series against England at home. However, they had a rethink and the BCCI has now asked him to play in the ODI series so that he gains some match practice ahead of the Champions Trophy in February,” the source was quoted as saying.

In the absence of Pant, Rahul has been the no.1 wicketkeeper-batter in ODIs and has consistently scored runs in the middle order. 

Why KL Rahul and not Rishabh Pant? 

Ever since, Pant was sidelined following his horrific car accident on December 30, 2022, Rahul was entrusted with the responsibility to don the big gloves for India. While Pant was out of the any cricketing action in 2023, Rahul scored 1060 runs from 27 ODIs at a strike rate of 87.74 in the same year. It included his seven fifties and two hundreds, out of which one came in the World Cup itself.  

In 2024, India did not play much ODIs, so as Rahul and Pant as the Men in Blue focussed more on T20Is and Test matches.