Not Jasprit Bumrah Or Virat Kohli! AB De Villiers Names 30-Year-Old Star As India's X-Factor For Champions Trophy 2025

India will be gunning for their second ICC trophy in less than a year when they take the field to begin their campaign for the ICC Champions Trophy 2025. India have already declared their squad for the mega tournament. The two players who would be absolutely crucial for the Men in Blue would be Jasprit Bumrah and Virat Kohli. Kohli has always been India's best player at ICC tournaments, while Bumrah has been in excellent form in recent times. However, the legendary South Africa batter has not named any of these two superstars as the X-factor for the Indian team.

In a video posted on his YouTube channel, AB de Villiers said that star left-arm leg-spinner Kuldeep Yadav would prove to be an X-factor for Team India. This is because he can be effective in the spin-friendly pitches in Dubai, where India will play all of their matches.

“Kuldeep Yadav is also in the Indian team, who I think can prove to be an X-factor for India. India is going to play its matches in Dubai. Spinners can get an advantage on the pitch there. Kuldeep can perform well for India,” de Villiers said.

Kuldeep Yadav missed being in the squad for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy after he was instructed to report to the NCA to fix his long-term issue on his left groin. Now the star spinner is set to make his return in the upcoming ODI series against England.

However, before that he is set to make his return to cricket in the final match of the group stage of the Ranji Trophy 2025 for Uttar Pradesh.

Rohit Sharma (C), Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill (VC), Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Washington Sundar, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Kuldeep Yadav

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