Former India player Aakash Chopra has urged the Indian team to bat first in their 2025 Champions Trophy Group A clash against Bangladesh as well. He added that Bangladesh don’t have the batting might to beat India and that setting a target might serve India a long-term objective.
However, India will play against Bangladesh in their 2025 Champions Trophy opener in Dubai on Thursday, February 20 as well.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel ‘Aakash Chopra,’ he said, “I am convinced that India should bat second in every single game barring this one. You might say why am I doing this course correction as I was saying something else earlier. Bangladesh – do they actually have it in them to beat us? The story starts from there.”

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“Firstly, their batting is looking quite weak to me. I am not saying that they can’t score runs but they are looking very weak. If we get them to bat first, they will get all out for 225. Your game plan should probably be to bat second but will it work out if they get all out for 225? So India might bat first if they win the toss in this match. Bat first and score 325 runs,” he again stated.

In the same video, Aakash Chopra also stated that Bangladesh are unlikely to pose a threat to India in their 2025 Champions Trophy match, especially with their batting as well.

“Can Bangladesh pose a threat to us? I am trying to figure out how they could do that with their batting, but I don’t feel they can. They have (Towhid) Hridoy, (Najmul Hossain) Shanto and Mahmudullah. They don’t have that much might. I don’t see might in their spin bowling but see it in their fast bowling, whether it’s Nahid Rana, Mustafizur Rahman or Taskin Ahmed. They can reduce you to 25/2 or 40/2. After that, India will eventually start dominating but the new-ball threat can come from Bangladesh,” Aakash Chopra concluded.