'You’re not playing': Gautam Gambhir likely to drop THIS star cricketer out of XI in IND vs BAN clash in Champions Trophy

India is facing challenging decision regarding their playing XI for the opening ICC Champions Trophy match against Bangladesh. Reports indicate that star all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja is likely to be unavailable for the match, leading to Washington Sundar being selected instead. Cricket analysts Piyush Chawla and Mike Hesson have suggested that choosing Jadeja could have been the more advantageous option for the Men in Blue.

A day before the match, Ravindra Jadeja was seen in a lively discussion with India’s head coach Gautam Gambhir during the team's practice session. Experts from Star Sports suggested that Gambhir may have informed Jadeja about his exist from the upcoming match.

India has five spin options available for the ICC event, including specialists Kuldeep Yadav and Varun Chakravarthy, along with all-rounders Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, and Washington Sundar. However, it is expected that India will opt for Sundar against Bangladesh due to the presence of three left-handed batsmen in the opposing lineup.

Bangladesh's batting lineup features several left-handed batters, including the opening trio of Tanzid Hasan, Soumya Sarkar, and captain Najmul Hossain Shanto. Piyush Chawla, speaking on Star Sports,"There are a lot of left-handers in the Bangladesh playing XI. But these two cricketers have done really well for India. But I think in the first game, they should have gone in with Jadeja and Axar because Kuldeep can take the ball away from the left-handers."

Former RCB and New Zealand head coach Mike Hesson observed that Ravindra Jadeja's body language indicated his dissatisfaction with the decision to exclude him from the playing XI. Hesson said, "He’s (Jadeja) not playing. You can tell from the body language that he’s being told he’s not playing. (Gambhir is saying), ‘That’s my decision. I’ve made it. You may not agree with it but thank you very much. You may go on to play the next one but for the first match, we’re playing the off-spinner."

Meanwhile, Ravindra Jadeja, who has retired from T20 internationals, has been a key player in the Indian ODI setup for the past 12 years, with Axar Patel serving as his understudy for much of that time. Axar was notably left out of India's ODI World Cup squad after the management made a last-minute decision to include Ravichandran Ashwin instead. However, Axar has significantly improved in all aspects of the game and has emerged as India's leading left-arm spin-bowling all-rounder in white-ball cricket.