Kian Gadsby
2025 promises to be an exciting year in the cricket world, with the first major event taking place in February with the Champions Trophy.
Although the tournament is controversial, as we’ll come onto, the cricket promises to be exciting. This One Day International (50 over) tournament represents an opportunity for the world’s best sides to compete and compare themselves against each other.
The Controversy
Pakistan are hosting this tournament, which is their first in cricket since 1996. The delay came about because of the 2009 Lahore terrorist attack, which saw 7 Sri Lankan players injured during a test series.
Whilst security concerns have largely eased since then, Pakistan still have regular conflict with India over the Kashmir region. This means that India are refusing to play in Pakistan, as they fear for their safety. Whilst other nations have played matches in Pakistan, England were there on a test tour recently, India have not played there since 2008.
Because of this, when the Indian Cricket Board threatened to pull out of the tournament over their concerns, the ICC decided to move India’s matches from Pakistan into the neutral venue of the UAE.
Further, the England team was strongly urged to refuse to play their group match against Afghanistan because of the Taliban’s assault on women’s rights in the country. It has been confirmed that the game will go ahead, as the ICC feels it is unfair to punish current Afghan players for the actions of their new government.
These controversies mean most of the conversation surrounding the tournament hasn’t been on the actual cricket, which is never a positive for a sporting event. However, when it gets going, the cricket will surely be dramatic and exciting.
The Cricket
Due to the limited number of One Day International cricket played internationally in recent years, identifying the favourites is difficult. Fortunately, teams have played warm up series in the Indian subcontinent giving us a look at who is coping well with the spinning pitches that the region is famous for.
England lost their recent series 3-0 against India, as they were resoundingly thrashed by their hosts. England lost the final match by 142 runs and have now fallen to 7th in the ICC ODI rankings after a poor run of results.
India are the favourites to win the tournament on the back of that series. However, the absence of Jasprit Bumrah might be crucial at derailing their hopes, as the bowler suffered a lower back injury on the eve of the tournament.
Australia are the reigning 50 over World Champions, but they suffered a disastrous 2-0 series defeat to a Sri Lanka side who did not qualify for the tournament as they were not ranked high enough. They suffered an embarrassing 174 run loss in the final match, and have seen absences of key players like Mitch Starc, Pat Cummings, Mitch Marsh and Josh Hazelwood leaving their squad thin and inexperienced.
Pakistan are getting themselves into form for the tournament, as the hosts recorded their record run chase in an ODI to beat South Africa, whilst New Zealand won their warmup matches against Pakistan and South Africa, showing their preparation for the local conditions.
Summary
The ICC Champions Trophy will showcase the world’s best cricketers against each other on a big stage. After Australia upset India on home turf to win the World Cup, there is no obvious favourite, making this tournament incredibly exciting.
Kian Gadsby
Featured image courtesy of @theinfluencermarketingfactory via Unsplash. Image use license found here (Unsplash). No changes were made to this image.
In article image 1 courtesy of @icc via Instagram. No changes were made to this image.
In article image 2 courtesy of @BBCSPORT via Instagram. No changes were made to this image.
In article image 3 courtesy of @englandcricket via Instagram. No changes were made to this image.
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