The ICC announced the Champions Trophy 2025 schedule on Tuesday. The tournament, which will be held in the hybrid model, will start from February 19 and will continue till March 9. 15 matches will be played in 19 days. A reserve day has also been kept for the second semi-final and the final. Group match between India and Pakistan will be played in Dubai on February 23.
Semi-final and final will also be played in Dubai. While the remaining 10 matches of the tournament will be held in Pakistan. The ICC confirmed that the Champions Trophy will be held in a hybrid model. Pakistan are the defending champions of the tournament, having won the title in 2017 by defeating India in the final.
India will start the campaign against Bangladesh India are in Group-A. The team's group consists of Pakistan, Bangladesh and New Zealand. In the second group are Australia, England, South Africa and Afghanistan. 2 semi-finals will be played on March 4 and 5 while the final will be played on March 9.
India-Pakistan teams will not play in each other's country Teams of India and Pakistan will not play cricket in each other's country. All India's matches in Champions Trophy 2025 will be played at neutral venues. Pakistan team will not come to India for any tournament till 2027. Its matches will also be held at neutral venues.
The information about this ICC decision came out on Thursday. This decision was taken earlier in the meeting. 2025 Women's ODI World Cup in India, T-20 World Cup in 2026 in India and Sri Lanka.
Earlier, when the ICC had approached the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) about holding the Champions Trophy 2025 in a hybrid model, the PCB had sought before the ICC not to send the team to India, which has now been accepted by the ICC.
All 15 members agreed to the hybrid model A meeting of all board members was held on December 5 in the presence of new ICC chairman Jai Shah. Shah also reached the headquarters in Dubai this month. In the meeting, all 15 members of the board agreed for the hybrid model. Pakistan also did not oppose the decision in the meeting.
Jai Shah reached the ICC headquarters in Dubai after becoming the chairman on 5th December.
Why was the decision delayed? Initially, India refused to send its team to Pakistan for this tournament. At first, Pakistan was adamant that India would have to come to Pakistan, but after India's tough stance, the Pakistan Cricket Board has finally agreed to the hybrid model.
Ever since Pakistan got the chance to host the Champions Trophy, there were speculations that the Indian team might refuse to go to Pakistan. India had earlier refused to go to Pakistan to play the Asia Cup in 2023. Then India's matches in the Asia Cup were held in Sri Lanka.
After this, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) proposed to hold all Indian matches in Lahore first and send the players to India after the matches. When India did not accept this, the PCB also refused for the hybrid model.
The last international match between India and Pakistan was played in the 2024 T20 World Cup. Then India won by 6 runs.
Ministry of External Affairs said, Pakistan will not go to India under any circumstances On Friday, the Ministry of External Affairs also clarified that the Indian team will not go to Pakistan. External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal has confirmed this news. He said, BCCI has refused to go to Pakistan citing security reasons. Team India will not go to Pakistan to play Champions Trophy under any circumstances. If ICC wants to play the tournament without India then the team is ready for that too.
Pakistan team came to India for ODI World Cup The Pakistan team came to India to play the ODI World Cup last year. Then on October 14, a match was played between India and Pakistan in Ahmedabad. The Indian team won this match by 7 wickets. Captain Rohit Sharma and Shreyas Iyer scored half centuries. Jasprit Bumrah became the player of the match. He took 2 wickets for 19 runs.
- Team India last visited Pakistan in 2008: Team India last visited Pakistan in 2008. The Indian team won that series of 3 Test matches 1-0. 2 matches of this series were drawn.
- Pakistan came to India to play a bilateral series in 2013: Pakistan last toured India in 2012-13. In that tour, a bilateral series of 3 ODIs and 2 T-20 matches was played. Pakistan won the ODI series 2–1, while the T20 series was tied 1–1.
The last bilateral series between India and Pakistan was played in January 2013. Since then the two teams have met only in the ICC and ACC tournaments.
India is not going to Pakistan after the terror attack in Mumbai The Indian team has not toured Pakistan since 2007-08. After the terrorist attack on Mumbai in 2008, the Indian government refused to play cricket in Pakistan. Since then both teams play only in ICC and ACC tournaments. Since 2013, both teams have played 13 ODIs and 8 T20 matches at neutral venues. During 2009, there was also a terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team in Pakistan.
Image Credit: (Divya-Bhaskar): Images/graphics belong to (Divya-Bhaskar).
