Rishabh Pant or KL Rahul? Piyush Chawla picks favourite to don keeping gloves for India in ICC Champions Trophy 2025

Rishabh Pant will have to wait a bit longer for a place in the Indian playing XI in the one-day internationals, thus ruling out his chances in the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy 2025, reckoned former India cricketer Piyush Chawla. India have named two wicketkeepers in the squad for the Champions Trophy 2025 in KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant. 

Following his return to top level cricket in 2024, Rishabh Pant has been a crucial member for the Indian team in both Test and T20I circuit. However, he still have to wait to cement his place in the ODI setup with KL Rahul being the preferred first-choice wicketkeeper. 

“If you ask me personally, I would go with KL Rahul because the kind of flexibility he gives in the middle order and also what he had done in ODIs for India in recent past,” Piyush Chawla responded to a Livemint's query on the sidelines of One World One Family Cup 2025 in Bengaluru. 

Having started as an opener, KL Rahul has gradually cemented his spot as a middle-order batter and succeeded. In fact, the right-hander played finished as India's third-highest run-getter in the ODI World Cup 2023 with 452 runs including a hundred and two fifties. 

Not only his stats, but KL Rahul also offers a stability in the middle-order at crunch situations with an ability to anchor the innings. On the other hand, Rishabh Pant offers a left-handed variety in the middle order, along with his counter-attacking approach. 

No KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant in same XI

Asked whether both could be included in the playing XI in the Champions Trophy, the 36-year-old replied in the favour of KL Rahul. “Both are quality players and both knows what they can do in the middle. But looking at the current situation, I don't see them playing together in the XI,” added Piyush Chawla.  

Currently, both Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul are a part of the ODI squad against England. The stylish right-hander from Karnataka played in both games so far but couldn't impress with scores of 2 and 10. 

Piyush Chawla was also asked to pick his Indian playing XI for the Champions Trophy. He picked Shubman Gill to open the batting with Rohit Sharma along with two specialist pacers and three spinners. 

Piyush Chawla's playing XI for Champions Trophy 

Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah (if fit)/Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Shami.