In a high-stakes Champions Trophy match on February 23 in Dubai, India and Pakistan will rekindle their long-standing rivalry. The Men in Green are in danger of being eliminated because Pakistan is still grieving from a 60-run loss to New Zealand in their opening match. After defeating Bangladesh by six wickets, India hopes to advance and exact revenge on their bitter rivals from the 2017 final. In high-profile matches, particularly those against Pakistan, Virat Kohli has a track record of winning.
In the 2022 T20 World Cup, who can forget the iconic rescue of India's chase against the Men in Green. However, the Indian maestro would also be eyeing to overcome some weaknesses.
During the 2024–25 season, Virat Kohli's shortcomings against leg-spinners have come back to haunt him. With 11 dot balls against the spinners in the middle overs of the first match against Bangladesh, Kohli found it difficult to rotate his stroke. After only 38 balls, Kohli scored 22 before being removed by leg-spinner Rishad Hossain.
Earlier in February, during an ODI series at home, England leg-spinner Adil Rashid dismissed the star batsman twice. When India lost to Sri Lanka 0–2 last year, he struggled against the island nation as well.
Virat Kohli vs Abrar Ahmed
Abrar Ahmed and Virat Kohli have not played each other yet. However, considering the legendary batter's recent performance, Ahmed's leg-spin abilities could pose a challenge to Kohli. Although there is no denying Kohli's skills, his latest dismissals have exposed a weakness in his game that Pakistan will try to exploit. However, Abrar Ahmed's recent performance in ODIs, which includes numbers of 2-41 and 4-27 in Test matches against the West Indies, shows that he has the ability to outclass batters.
Given Virat Kohli's recent weakness against leg-spin, Pakistan may decide to strategically use Abrar Ahmed in their crucial match. In order to take advantage of Kohli's hesitant form against the craft, captain Muhammad Rizwan may bring the right-arm wrist-spinner, who is renowned for his fast turn, early.
Squad
India: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, Harshit Rana, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy, Arshdeep Singh, Rishabh Pant, Washington Sundar.
Pakistan: Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam, Saud Shakeel, Mohammad Rizwan (c & wk), Salman Agha, Tayyab Tahir, Khushdil Shah, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, Abrar Ahmed, Mohammad Hasnain, Usman Khan, Kamran Ghulam, Faheem Ashraf.