Champions Trophy 2025: Suresh Raina picks India's playing XI, leaves out KL Rahul, Mohammed Shami

Suresh Raina left experienced cricketers KL Rahul and Mohammed Shami on the bench while picking India's playing XI for the upcoming Champions Trophy 2025. Both players couldn't make much of an impact during the recently-concluded series against England due to different reasons.

The team management dropped Rahul to No. 6 in the batting order in the first two matches and he aggregated just 12 runs. In the third ODI, the wicketkeeper-batter was promoted to No. 5 and he contributed with a fine cameo of 40 off 29 balls. Meanwhile, Shami played the first two ODIs and was rested in the third. He picked up two wickets at an average of 52 and an economy rate of 6.57. However, the 34-year-old played an ODI series after a long injury layoff. Experts believe that he will get his rhythm back with more match practice.

However, Raina decided to leave them out of his playing XI. Washington Sundar and Varun Chakaravarthy were the other two players who couldn't find spots in the team.

Suresh Raina's predicted playing XI: Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (WK), Axar Patel, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav.

Kuldeep Yadav is going to be very important: Suresh Raina

Raina, who was a part of India's squad that won the Champions Trophy in 2013, said that Kuldeep Yadav will play an important role, given his ability to create pressure and pick wickets.

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"Kuldeep Yadav is going to be very important because Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja contain well in the middle overs, bowling stump to stump; and then Kuldeep can bring in his mystery spin, particularly against Pakistan who play the sweep shot well...New Zealand have a lot of left-handers. The kind of pressure Kuldeep can create and force the batters to go for the big shot, it can lead to wickets," said Raina on Star Sports.