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Australia will be without their premier pacers but their envious pedigree in ICC tournaments make them favourites to progress to the semifinals of the Champions Trophy from Group B along with South Africa. But they will face stiff challenges from England and Afghanistan. Here's the Group B SWOT analysis.
The Champions Trophy 2025 starts in less than a week's time. The Champions Trophy 2025 will be held in Pakistan and Dubai this time. The Indian cricket team will be playing all its matches in Dubai including the knockouts if it qualifies. Many teams like India, Australia, England had to make last-minute changes to their Champions Trophy squads due to injuries to top players. February 11 was the last day to make changes to the squads. (Champions Trophy 2025 Live Coverage)
New Zealand secured a five-wicket victory over Pakistan in the tri-nation series final in Karachi, strengthening their position in the ICC Men's ODI team rankings, as per Wisden. Chasing a target of 243, New Zealand comfortably reached the total in just 45.2 overs, with key contributions from Daryl Mitchell (57), captain Tom Latham (56), Devon Conway (48), Kane Williamson (34), and Glenn Phillips (20*). Despite a recent dip in form, Latham played a crucial role in guiding his team to victory.
The India senior men's cricket team, led by opener Rohit Sharma, have departed for Dubai from Mumbai to participate in the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy, starting from February 19. All Group A matches of the Indian team will be held at the Dubai International Stadium, while the rest of the games will take place in Pakistan. Visuals from the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai showed Rohit & Co, along with the support staff, checking into the airport to take their flight to Dubai.
Legendary Australia cricketer Adam Gilchrist said stand-in captain Steve Smith should be slotted in as an opener in the ODI team for the upcoming Champions Trophy, citing it as a way of maximising the number of deliveries he can face in the side's matches in Pakistan. In Australia's heavy 2-0 ODI series loss in Sri Lanka, Smith made 12 and 29 as a middle-order batter. But with young Jake Fraser-McGurk in an inconsistent run of form, Gilchrist feels Smith has to open the batting, though he finds Matt Short as an interesting option to partner with Travis Head at the top.
MS Dhoni and Harbhajan Singh were long-time teammates, who played for India together and achieved much success. They were together in several World Cup campaigns, two of which resulted in momentous triumphs in 2007 and 2011. They also played together for Chennai Super Kings. MS Dhoni still plays for the franchise, while Harbhajan is an expert commentator for many channels. Recently, Harbahajan Singh met with MS Dhoni at a function and the video went viral for all the wrong reason.
England suffered an embarrassing 3-0 ODI series defeat and 4-1 T20I series defeat at the hands of India in their recently-concluded tour, and legendary India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has launched a scathing criticism on them. In particular, Ashwin expressed disappointment at how lightly England seemingly took the series, and also emphasized his disapproval of excuses used by England following their defeats. In particular, England opener Ben Duckett came under the hammer from Ashwin after he'd said that they don't mind losing the series 3-0 as long as England beat India in the Champions Trophy.
The Champions Trophy starts next week with a match between Pakistan and New Zealand. While the top eight ODI teams are competing in the marquee event, the one match that all fans in the sub-continent are looking forward to is the India vs Pakistan match, which will take place in Dubai on February 23. While the arch-rivalry between the two teams is legendary, this time the match hold extra significance in the back-drop of what happened in the build-up of the Champions Trophy 2025.