KL Rahul beats Virat Kohli to this prestigious award after 1st Champions Trophy 2025 match

Wicketkeeper-batter KL Rahul won the award for the dressing room's fielder of the match for his brilliant catching during India's opening match of Champions Trophy 2025 against Bangladesh. KL Rahul took three good catches behind the stumps in the match.

While Rahul won the award the competition wasn't an easy one. Along with him, Virat Kohli and Shubman Gill also took outstanding catches in the match. However, India's fielding coach T Dilip decided to give Rahul the award for his game-awareness behind the stumps.

Also read: Gautam Gambhir cautioned by ex-India Head Coach on giving a long rope to Virat Kohli-Rohit Sharma

KL Rahul beats Virat Kohli to become dressing room's fielder of the match

KL Rahul beat Virat Kohli and Shubman Gill in the race to become the best fielder of the match for India. Kohli also took two good catches in the match. He first took a sharp catch at covers to dismiss Bangladesh captain Najmul Hossain Shanto and then took a high catch to break an important stand between Towhid Hridoy and Jaker Ali.

T Dilip took note of Kohli's fielding performances and hailed the veteran for taking his chances. "He does what he does all the time, going into his positions, grabbing every opportunity when it comes to his way," said Dilip.

Meanwhile, fast bowler Mohammed Shami also took a fine catch to dismiss Towhid Hridoy for Bangladesh's last wicket of the day. Shami got around a high ball quickly and got around from a short fine leg to take a good catch.

Dilip also lauded Shubman Gill for taking a brilliant catch at slip to dismiss Mehidy Hasan Miraz off Mohammed Shami's bowling. However, the winner of the award was KL Rahul for his three outstanding catches behind the stumps.

"I think he has been very consistent behind the stumps. Because with the new ball, diving on the leg side, not only this game, he has been really doing well, taking those catches at important instances," Dilip said of Rahul.

𝘿𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙍𝙤𝙤𝙢 𝘽𝙏𝙎 | 𝙁𝙞𝙚𝙡𝙙𝙚𝙧 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙈𝙖𝙩𝙘𝙝 | #BANvIND

A BIG start to #ChampionsTrophy 2025 🙌

The fielder of the match 🏅 for our first game of the tournament goes to 🥁

WATCH 🎥🔽 #TeamIndiahttps://t.co/8rWspNG0wb

— BCCI (@BCCI) February 21, 2025

Good day for KL Rahul

Overall, KL Rahul had a good day behind the stumps. He picked up two catches, one off the fast bowler Mohammed Shami and two catches off the bowling of the left-arm spinner Axar Patel. Rahul got a catching opportunity in the first over of the match itself.

He took a simple catch to dismiss Bangladesh's opener Soumya Sarkar for a duck which gave India and Mohammed Shami a great start. Rahul had to wait till the ninth over for his next catch of this game.

KL Rahul took a brilliant catch off Axar Patel to dismiss Tanzid Hasan. The bowler wasn't convinced off the outside edge but Rahul knew it and appealed straight away, The umpire eventually gave it out despite the bowler not appealing and it turned out to be the right call.

In the next ball, the wicketkeeper-batter took another sharp catch for the big wicket of Mushfiqur Rahim. The ball had taken the shoulder of the bat and bounced a touch extra but Rahul kept his eyes on the ball to take it cleanly.

Not a great day for India in the field

While some good catches were taken, it wasn't a great day for India in the field. Hardik Pandya and skipper Rohit Sharma dropped two absolute sitters to give Bangladesh a new life that allowed them to score a decent first innings score.

Rohit dropped Jaker Ali at slip off his first ball which even cost Axar Patel a well-deserved hat-trick. A few overs later, Hardik Pandya dropped another easy catch at mid-off to give Towhid Hridoy a new life.

Both batters went on to stitch a fine partnership of 154 runs to put Bangladesh in a respectable position. Jaker scored 68 off 114 balls with 4 fours while Hridoy struck 100 off 118 balls with 6 fours and 2 sixes.