Aakash Chopra urges India to chase in 2025 Champions Trophy, says batting is team’s strength

Former Indian Test opener Aakash Chopra wants India to bat second in the upcoming Champions Trophy. The renowned commentator highlighted that India’s batting is their strength but they have an issue in their bowling.

India would be missing the services of their gun fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah, who has been ruled out with a back injury. However, the Ajit Agarkar-led selection panel has picked five spinners in their squad – Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, and Varun Chakravarthy.

Meanwhile, in the recent ODI series against England, India won the first two matches by chasing targets. The hosts won the opening game by achieving the target of 249 whereas they chased down 305 runs in the second game.

“I am with you 100%. It’s the rule in white-ball cricket that whatever is your strength should be the second thing you should do. If your bowling is good, do that later. If your batting is good, do that later, and this team’s batting is good,” Aakash Chopra said on his YouTube Channel when asked if India should look to chase in the Champions Trophy.

“We are saying that we have a lot of variation in bowling and have five spinners as well. However, if we are being honest, we have an issue in bowling. Our strength is our batting. We are playing batting till No. 8,” Chopra added.

Meanwhile, the reputed commentator added that the pressure to win matches should be on the batters. Chopra noted that the dew factor will also come into the picture.

“The pressure to win matches should be on the batters. So definitely India should bat second. If you win the toss, decide to bowl, and you ideally do that as well because dew also comes later at times. If there is any danger of dew, that is always in the second innings,” he said (7:05).

“So you should have the bat and not the ball in your hand at that time. Whichever way we might see, the answer to that question is India should chase in almost every match. I don’t think there will be a pitch in Dubai where you will need to bat first,” Chopra observed.

India will begin their Champions Trophy campaign against Bangladesh in Dubai on February 20.