Rohit Sharma denies any preparation by team India for ICC Champions Trophy 2025

India's Test and ODI captain Rohit Sharma has denied the speculations that India will treat the ODIs against Sri Lanka as practice games for the ICC Champions Trophy 2025. When asked if this series is for the preparation for next year's Champions Trophy, Rohit clearly said that it's not a practice game and India wants to play good cricket.

The three-match ODI series between Sri Lanka and India will start on July 2 (Friday). The next two ODIs will be on July 4 and 7 respectively. All the matches will be played at R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo.

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Rohit Sharma not taking Sri Lanka series as prep for ICC Champions Trophy 2025

India captain Rohit Sharma attended a press conference on the eve of the first ODI. The opener clearly said that India will not take this as a practice match and will try to play good cricket throughout the series.

"You get asked a lot whether this series is a preparation for the World Cup, or is this a preparation for the Champions Trophy. It's not a practice ground - it's still an international game," Rohit said in the press conference.

"We will keep in our minds what we want to achieve, but this is by no means preparation or practice or anything like that. We want to come here and play good cricket and get something out of the series,” Rohit said in the press conference," he added.

The 37-year-old denied India taking these ODIs lightly and claimed that his team wants to play the same brand of cricket that they have played over the last few years.

"Of course we want to try everything possible, but when you're representing the nation, the quality of cricket should remain the way it is, and how we've played over the last few years. That is more important, rather than thinking about it as a preparation and saying let's go out and chill in Colombo. We don't think like that,” Rohit mentioned.

Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli back in India's colors

India have been exceptional in all the formats in the past year or so. They reached three ICC finals within a year, in which they lost two of them and won the T20 World Cup 2024 in June. Rohit Sharma played a key role in India's T20 World Cup win as he emerged as India's highest run-scorer and second-highest run-scorer of the tournament overall.

Alongside Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli will also be back for this ODI series. Both the legends will be back in India colors for the first time after India's historic T20 World Cup 2024 final win over South Africa.

The T20I series between Sri Lanka and India finished in India's favour with the visitors claiming a resounding 3-0 win. Although the first two T20Is were straight-forward wins for India, the last T20I went to the Super Over after the game ended in a tie. But world champions India held its nerves to keep calm and win the match.