Sports Desk

After hectic parleys over Champions Trophy 2025 regarding India going to Pakistan for the scheduled Champions Trophy ICC concluded for a hybrid process tournament.

All matches of India will now be held in Dubai, UAE. Pakistan will remain the host of 8 nations tournament. Pakistan is the reigning champion, and India is one of the hot favorites. It is to be noted that for reasons other than cricket India and Pakistan do not play bilateral cricket in any format for a long time. Pakistani players do not play in IPL and Indians do not play PSL. But whenever they meet in ICC tournaments India -Pakistan matches turn into blockbuster.

Cricket enthusiasts have started countdown for Champions Trophy 2025 scheduled to start from 19 February 2025 at National Stadium Karachi between the host Pakistan and New Zealand. The final will be played either at Lahore or Dubai depending on India featuring in the final. The 19 days tournament participated by 8 top ranked nations has now become the talk of the cricket world. Analysts and experts are busy making in-depth analysis and predictions.

All participating countries have announced the squads. Of the participants four are from the subcontinent -India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. The remaining four are Australia, England, South Africa and New Zealand.

Following is the schedule of the matches.

19 Feb – Pakistan v New Zealand, National Stadium, Karachi
20 Feb – Bangladesh v India, Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai
21 Feb – Afghanistan v South Africa, National Stadium, Karachi
22 Feb – Australia v England, Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore
23 Feb – Pakistan v India, Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai
24 Feb - Bangladesh v New Zealand, Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, Rawalpindi
25 Feb – Australia v South Africa, Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, Rawalpindi
26 Feb – Afghanistan v England, Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore
27 Feb – Pakistan v Bangladesh, Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, Rawalpindi
28 Feb – Afghanistan v Australia, Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore
1 Mar – South Africa v England, National Stadium, Karachi
2 Mar – New Zealand v India, Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai
4 Mar – Semi-final 1, Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai*
5 Mar – Semi-final 2, Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore**
9 Mar – Final - Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore***
* Semi-final 1 will involve India if they qualify
**Semi-final 2 will involve Pakistan if they qualify

We will preview the tournament with analysis about the potential of the participating teams.

Eight teams divided into two groups will play against each other. The two top teams will then appear in the semifinals. The groups are Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and New Zealand in Group A. Australia, England, South Africa and Afghanistan in Group B.

Pakistan and India being archrivals and crowd pullers, we will discuss about these teams first. Then progressively we will analyze other teams.

Squads:

Pakistan: Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shadab Khan, Fakhar Zaman, Kamran Ghulam, Noman Ali, Sajid Khan, Naseem Shah, Ehsanullah, Mohammad Wasim Junior, Haris Rauf, Agha Salman, Usman Qadir, Tayyab Tahir and Hasan Ali.

India: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja,

The wickets of Pakistan and Dubai will assist spinners. Hence both India and Pakistan squad have preference for spinners. Pakistan also possesses very strong pace attack will Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf, Naseem Shah and Mohammad Wasim Junior included. But apart from Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan, Fakhar Zaman, Kamran Ghulam and Salman Agha batting looks shallow. Pakistan is now playing test series against West Indies. There is possibility that Pakistan may change their final squad replacing some members with some batsmen inform.

The squad announced does not appear to have quality batsmen for winning any international tournament. The strong pace unit and spinners may restrict teams to chasable scores, but the batsmen need proven scoring abilities. Apart from Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan no other batsman is of international class. Fakhar Zaman has not played major cricket in the recent past. Kamran Ghulam is relatively raw. Pakistan will need one or two quality batsmen at the top and one or two quality all-rounders alongside Shadab Khan. Pakistan starts their mission against New Zealand at Karachi. Then they play against archrival India at Dubai and finally play Bangladesh. None of the matches will be easy at all. In the recent past Pakistan lost test series against Bangladesh at home. Though they beat England at home but lost to South Africa on tour. Off course white ball cricket will be different and ICC curators will produce sporting wickets. If Pakistan can get through the group stage, they will turn into contender for the championship.

Indian squad is versatile and diverse. If India can brush off their bitter memories of red ball cricket in the recent past and the battering, they got from Australia in ICC World Cup they have great opportunity for winning the championship. The two megastar Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli did not perform with the red ball consistently in the recent past. But things may change with the white ball. The team has quality youngsters like Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jayswals’re Iyer at the top, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant in the middle order. The team has world class allrounders in Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja . Even Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav are no mug with the bat. So far as batting is concerned on sporting Dubai wicket India will have no issues. India has very strong all round bowling unit. Jasprit Bumrah is 100% match fit will test any batting team on any surface. He will have with him Mohammad Shami as his partner. But both Bumrah and Shami must get match fit. Arshdeep Singh also is a quality pacer. In Jadeja, Kuldeep and Axar Patel India possess the best spin unit on subcontinental wickets. India will have unfair advantage of playing all matches at Dubai while all other teams must travel and adjust to different playing conditions.

India starts its mission with the match against Bangladesh. Who knows whether Bangladesh cause a surprise upsetting the giant. Taskin, Nahid Rana and Tanjim Hasan Shakib may surprise them if only Bangladesh bats well. India and Pakistan will then have blockbuster encounter at Dubai and finally India will play New Zealand.

Whatever happens India and Pakistan remains two fancied sides in the world cricket. It will be a great spectacle if they appear in the final which is not also unlikely if they do not slip early.