Thu Feb 20 07:50:00 UTC 2025: ## India Begins Champions Trophy Campaign with Loss to Bangladesh
**Dubai, UAE –** The ICC Champions Trophy 2025 kicked off on February 19th with a hybrid tournament format, featuring matches in Pakistan and Dubai. Team India, playing all their matches in Dubai, faced Bangladesh in their opening encounter on February 20th.
Bangladesh captain Nazmul Hossain Shanto won the toss and elected to bat first, setting a challenging target for India. This is only the second time the two teams have met in a Champions Trophy; India previously defeated Bangladesh by 9 wickets in the 2017 edition. Their overall ODI head-to-head stands at 32 wins for India and 8 for Bangladesh in 41 matches.
India’s playing XI included Rohit Sharma (captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, Harshit Rana, Mohammed Shami, and Kuldeep Yadav, while Varun Chakravarthy and Arshdeep Singh were left out.
The tournament features 8 teams divided into two groups. Group A includes India, Pakistan, New Zealand, and Bangladesh, while Group B consists of South Africa, Australia, Afghanistan, and England. Each team plays three group stage matches, with the top two from each group advancing to the semi-finals.
The matches are being broadcast on Star Sports TV channels and live-streamed on JioHotstar.
First Piper 