Indian cricket team wicket-keeper batter Rishabh Pant missed the practice session ahead of the much-anticipated Champions Trophy 2025 clash against Pakistan. While Virat Kohli arrived around ‘2-3 hours’ ahead of the session to face spinners at the nets, most of the other cricketers were also present. However, Pant was forced to miss the practice and in the pre-match press conference, Shubman Gill revealed that he was down with viral fever. Pant missed the first game against Bangladesh where KL Rahul was included ahead of him and he is expected to accompany the team if he is declared fit.

Meanwhile, Mohammed Shami will play an ODI against Pakistan after a long gap of ten years. The last time Shami featured against the arch-rivals in the 50-over format was in 2015.

He has five wickets in three matches, and his best against Pakistan is 4/35 and has an average of 21.40.

Shami’s return from injury has been nothing short of a fairy tale, as he made an emphatic comeback in an ICC event, picking up 5/53 against Bangladesh and completing 200 ODI wickets.

His resurgence followed an extensive rehabilitation period, where he toiled in domestic cricket across different formats for Bengal in the Ranji Trophy, Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, and Vijay Hazare Trophy.

Throughout his career, Shami has been plagued by injuries but has consistently made strong comebacks. During the 2015 World Cup, he played through painkiller injections and finished as the fourth-highest wicket-taker, with 17 wickets in seven matches.

However, injuries prevented him from playing in the 2017 Champions Trophy, and between the 2015 World Cup and the start of 2019, he managed to play only five ODIs.

(With ANI inputs)