Champions Trophy 2025: How Strong Is India's Batting? Evaluating The Line-up

Probuddha Bhattacharjee

India Team in a huddle [Source: @SPORTYVISHAL/x.com]India Team in a huddle [Source: @SPORTYVISHAL/x.com]

India will be looking to play their best cricket in the upcoming edition of the Champions Trophy 2025. The Rohit Sharma-led unit will be looking to go one better than they did in the last edition of the tournament, where they finished as the runners-up. 

As the Indian team gears up for the marquee event, they are trying to answer some last-minute questions about their combinations. The team is currently involved in a three-match ODI series against England and is looking to get all their bases covered ahead of the grand event.

In this article, we will look at India's batting line-up for the tournament and evaluate them based on strength, depth and versatility. But before that, let us look at the most probable batting line-up of the Indian team for the tournament. 

Openers: Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill
Middle-Order: Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul
Lower-Middle Order: Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel

Strength Of Indian Batting Line-up

Stats Of The Batters In The Indian Batting Order [Courtesy: @DataWrapper]Stats Of The Batters In The Indian Batting Order [Courtesy: @DataWrapper]

If we look at the stats of the Indian batters, we see that when it comes to openers and middle-orders, the team looks really strong. While the middle order has done slightly better than the top order, the consistency and impact of the top five will not be an area of concern for the Indian team.

However, if in any match the pressure falls on the lower middle-order, the Indian team might come under a bit of trouble. The stats suggest us that there is a bit of trouble as per the consistency and the impact of the middleorder is concerned. However, with Hardik Pandya and Axar Patel improving on their batting abilities, India will will hope that they bail out of the crisis situations.

Evaluation - 8/10

Depth Of Indian Batting Line-up

India's Batting Depth Chart [Courtesy: @DataWrapper]India's Batting Depth Chart [Courtesy: @DataWrapper]

While trying to analyse the strength of the Indian team we have already discussed that there is a lack of depth in the probable batting order. So, as far as the strength of the playing XI is considered we can say that the depth might be a bit weak as far as the consistency and the impact of the lower middle order is concerned. 

But to analyse the depth of a batting line-up we need to look at the bench strength of the team too. In that case we can see that India has a good replacement in all the spots in their champions trophy squad.

Evaluation - 7/10

Versatility Of Indian Batting Line-up

India's Batting Versatility Chart [Courtesy: @DataWrapper]India's Batting Versatility Chart [Courtesy: @DataWrapper]

The table shows the Indian batters who will have most of the responsibility to score the majority of the runs for the team during the Champions Trophy 2025. Among the nine batters, we see that there are three left handed players. This would allow the management to shift around their line-up and bring in a bit of dynamism and variation as per the demands of the game.

A look at the strike rate and the average of the players, gives us the idea that India have a good mixture of player who can be consistent and also be impactful with their scoring rate. As far as the balance and versatility of the batting line-up of India is concerned for the Champions Trophy, it looks like decent enough. 

Evaluation - 8/10

Conclusion

As we see the batting strength of the Indian team for the Champions Trophy 2025, we get the idea that it looks a overall balanced, strong and impactful line-up. However, there might be lack of impact in the lower order when we see the probable XI of the team. But with the players available and batters that are in repertoire for the team, it has an overall balanced look. 

Evaluation - 7.6/10