“India have been dominant in the few ODIs they’ve played heading into the Champions Trophy, but inconsistencies remain in the batting order. At the core of the debate are the decisions to play KL Rahul ahead of Rishabh Pant as the lead wicketkeeper and sending Axar Patel out to bat ahead of KL Rahul at No. 5. Former India coach Ravi Shastri sparked off the debate when the camera panned on Pant in the dugout in the second ODI. Shreyas Iyer himself set the cat amongst pigeons when he revealed that he wasn’t supposed to start in the first ODI, only to cashed in on opportunity, logging two emphatic half-centuries and an innings of 44. Eventually, Yashvi Jaiswal became the top of the order in the ODI series. However, at the end of the series, Gambhir insisted that Iyer was always a first-choice pick and that the management just wanted to check out the top order.”
