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India kicked off the 2025 Champions Trophy with a solid six-wicket win over Bangladesh. While the margin looks comfortable enough, there were moments throughout the game that gave India some jitters.
Mohammed Shami continued his dominant run in ICC ODI events while Shubman Gill’s imperious form took India over the line in a tricky run-chase. Bangladesh had their moments but were always playing catch-up, having had poor powerplays with both bat and ball.
Bangladesh won the toss and opted to bat first. However, they had a horror start to the innings. Mohammed Shami got a wicket in the very first over of the match. Soumya Sarkar was dismissed for a duck as he nicked to KL Rahul behind the stumps. Skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto was also out for a duck. He drove one straight to Virat Kohli at cover as Harshit Rana struck in his first over as well.
Bangladesh were 2/2 in the second over but Tanzid Hasan didn’t hold back. He looked to play his shots and got a few boundaries but his onslaught didn’t last long. Mehidy Hasan Miraz edged one to slip in the 7th over to give Shami his second wicket. Spin was introduced in the 8th over in the form of Axar Patel who almost had a hat-trick.
The left-arm spinner induced the edge of Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim off successive deliveries to leave Bangladesh reeling at 35/5. KL Rahul showed sharp reflexes, taking both those catches. Axar almost became the second bowler in the history of Champions Trophy to take a hat-trick but it wasn’t to be as Rohit Sharma dropped an absolute sitter at slip.
Jaker Ali was the lucky batter who got an early reprieve. That hurt India quite a bit as Jaker forged a solid resurrection act alongside Towhid Hridoy. The duo put on a record sixth-wicket partnership (the highest in the history of the Champions Trophy).
Both Jaker and Hridoy took their time and had their chances but ensured Bangladesh got to a fighting total. The Indian spinners bowled well in the middle phase, creating chances and troubling the right-handed duo. However, the Bangladesh pair weathered the storm and made full use of the lives they got.
Jaker was content on rotating the strike while Hridoy upped the ante after getting to his half-century. The duo added 154 runs and took the score close to 200 before Shami eventually got India the much-needed breakthrough. Ali holed out at long-on and was out for 68.
Rishad Hossain walked out and smashed Axar for two sixes along with one four before perishing to Harshit. Just when Hridoy looked set for a final flourish, he suffered massive cramps which restricted his movement and running big time. That slowed Bangladesh down towards the end as Shami continued chipping away with wickets and completed another five-wicket haul, his 6th in ODI cricket and 5th in ICC ODI tournaments.
Hridoy completed his maiden ODI ton before Bangladesh were bowled out for 228 in the final over of the innings. Shami, Harshit and Axar were the wicket-takers for India.
Rohit sets up the chase before Gill smashes ton and takes India home in tricky conditions
Chasing a below-par score, Rohit started off tentatively. He was beaten three times in a row against Mustafizur in the second over. However, the Indian captain put that behind him and went after the Bangladesh left-arm pacer, hitting him for a total of seven fours in the span of three overs.
On the other hand, Gill got a fluent start as well. The No. 1 ranked ODI batter got to 26 off 23 balls as India raced to 65 in the first nine overs. It was in the last over of the powerplay that Rohit ended up skying one against Taskin Ahmed and India lost their first wicket. Rohit once again fell in the 40s.
Post the powerplay, Bangladesh introduced spin and that put a stranglehold on India. Virat Kohli didn’t get off to a fluent start and struggled to rotate strike. The India No. 3 took 10 deliveries to get off the mark. Meanwhile, Gill slowed down as well. India managed a mere 32 runs in overs between 10 and 20. Mehidy Hasan Miraz bowled stump to stump while Rishad Hossain was getting the ball to turn and bounce.
The leg-spinner eventually got the better of Kohli who cut one straight to backward point. It was the 5th time he got out to leg-spin in his last six ODIs. Shreyas Iyer came in and got a couple of boundaries before he needlessly tried to go over the top against Mustafizur and holed out at mid-off. Axar Patel was once again promoted to No. 5 but Rishad dismissed him as well.
India suddenly were in a bit of trouble at 144/4 in the 31st over. They had lost their last three wickets for just 33 runs. At that stage, Gill was batting on 56 off 78 balls and held his end up but he needed some support. He found that in the form of KL Rahul.
The India wicket-keeper batter was dropped when he was on 9 and India still needed 64 runs at that stage. Jaker Ali was the fielder at deep square-leg. Rahul made full use of the chance as he combined with Gill to take India home.
The latter kept nudging the ball around, rotating the strike beautifully while finding the odd boundary. Meanwhile, Rahul started off slowly but got fluent as he went deeper into the innings.
With 20 runs required, Gill smashed a six and a four before he brought up his 8th ODI hundred and first in ICC tournaments. It was his fourth successive 50+ score in ODI cricket as his knock ensured India didn’t suffer any hiccups in what was a tricky run-chase in the end.
The ‘Men in Blue’ eventually hunted down the target with 3.3 overs to spare. The end result may seem it was done without a lot of fuss but the pitch really slowed down and the Bangladesh spinners put the brakes on in the middle overs. However, India held their nerve through Gill and started the Champions Trophy 2025 with a win.
BRIEF SCORES: Bangladesh 228 all out (Towhid Hridoy 100, Jaker Ali 68, Mohammed Shami 5/53, Harshit Rana 3/31, Axar Patel 2/43) lost to India 231/4 (Shubman Gill 101*, KL Rahul 41*, Rohit Sharma 41, Rishad Hossain 2/38, Taskin Ahmed 1/36) by six wickets and 21 balls to spare.
