Former India player turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra has questioned the selection of five spinners, including three all-rounders, in the Indian team’s 2025 Champions Trophy squad. He also shared his thoughts on Varun Chakaravathy getting picked ahead of Kuldeep Yadav as the only specialist spinner in the playing XI as well.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel ‘Aakash Chopra,’ he said, “They have included Varun, but who went out – Yashasvi Jaiswal. After doing that, we now have five spinners. Why do you need so many spinners? I felt the Indian team might drop Yashasvi but would keep a fast bowler for him and Varun in place of Washington Sundar. The danger I see in this is that you might play Varun ahead of Kuldeep.”

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“I have this bad feeling because you haven’t compromised your all-rounder. If you had kept only Jaddu (Ravindra Jadeja) and Axar (Patel) in the team and not kept Washi, then we might have felt that they are okay with it even if we don’t have batting at No. 8. Right now it seems, no matter what happens, we need a batter at No. 8,” Chopra again added.

In the same video, Aakash Chopra added that it was virtually impossible to find a replacement for the pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah for the 2025 Champions Trophy as well.

“When Bumrah goes out, you don’t have one but two changes. It’s impossible to replace Bumrah, but you still try. So you either strengthen your fast bowling or add a wrist spinner to your spin department. To be fair, the Indian selectors were trying to do something like that only. They included Harshit Rana in the team for the first two ODIs against England and then he played the third match as well. So Harshit Rana was being prepared. However, he is not a like-for-like replacement because there is no one like Bumrah,” Aakash Chopra concluded.