The most anticipated question in the next ICC tournament, on how will the International Cricket Council (ICC) organize the upcoming edition of the Champions Trophy (CT) 2025, which is scheduled to happen in Pakistan, who are the defending champions of the tournament, having beaten India in the final, back in 2017, at the Kennington Oval, in London.
According to Cricbuzz, the window for the tournament has been identified and has been decided to take place from February 19 to March 09, as many sources from the various boards have connected the ICC to get confirmation of the news.
The Champions Trophy 2025 is expected to be an eight-team tournament, which could run for 20 days, and will be the first edition since 2017.
Clouds over India’s participation of Champions Trophy 2025 in Pakistan
The exact match days for the competition are yet to be finalized, while the schedule will anyway be among those 20 days. This will put many T20 league tournaments under pressure. Initially, it was planned that the tournament would kick off on a Friday and end on a Sunday, which would attract more crowds.
It has also been informed that the tentative dates have already been shared with the cricketing boards so that they can adjust their league game tournaments accordingly. The International League T20 for the United Arab Emirates has been announced to run from January 1 to February 09, which also clashes in the same window with SA20 for its third season.
Many players, such as the likes of Trent Boult, Rashid Khan, and others have been part of both the competitions and somehow has managed to take part in both of those. Now, with the Champions Trophy happening, the question stands on whether the boards will allow to them to take such risks on their fitness level, just before the start of the tournament.
It’s however still not sure whether the 50-over competition will be played in Pakistan, given the current government continue to rule in India, the political parties may continue to share the same relation with Pakistan, even though no official statement has been made yet.
If the same policy continues, then just like the last year’s Asia Cup 2023, the BCCI may look to use the hybrid model and play their games of the tournament in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
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The sources, however, feels it’s too early to express on whether the Indian team will visit the neighboring county for the Champions Trophy. ‘We will have some idea in the next two months.’ A source revealed to Cricbuzz. The clarity is yet to be announced and may get declared in the ICC conference in Colombo in July. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will follow the government’s policy for the tournament.
It’s been reported earlier that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) are trying to identify Lahore as the sole venue for the India games, so the team don’t need to make more travels in the county, and the fans could easily cross to the city through the Wagah border.
In 2017, under the captaincy of Sarfaraz Khan, Pakistan won the Champions Trophy, after bundling out India for 158, in huge chase of 339-runs, where their opener Fakhar Zaman notched up 114-runs after getting a vital life off a no-ball from Jasprit Bumrah, at the start of the game.