Moving on from the various ODI bilateral and tri-series into tournament play. The 2025 Champions Trophy is starting in less than a week being played in Pakistan and Dubai.

A short tournament featuring 8 teams drawn up in two groups of 4, with the top 2 in each group advancing to the semi-finals. Ten games will be played in Pakistan (Lahore, Karachi and Rawalpindi) and 4 in Dubai with the venue for the final contingent on whether India is still in fray.

Group A features India, Pakistan, New Zealand and Bangladesh and Group B has Australia, England, Afghanistan and South Africa. Between the World T20 in 2024 and the WTC, teams have not really play much ODI cricket since the 2023 World Cup. The form guide though suggests that India and New Zealand might be the teams to watch for, then again between varying conditions and teams doing a lot of experimenting it is difficult to draw any specific pattern.

In this conversation we will be taking a look a brief look at the squads of the 8 teams and trying to assess their prospects. In particular factoring in the non availability of key players in some teams. We will also be spending more time on the selections for Team India, particular the curious decision of taking a spin heavy unit to Dubai.

During the chat we touch upon the following questions -

1. Can Afghanistan cause any ripples like in the 2023 World Cup ?
2. Does Australia have it in them to overcome the absence of all their first line quicks ?
3. Will England wake up from their stupor ?
4. How will New Zealand fare for their first major tournament without Boult and Southee ?
5. The South Africans have been severely impacted by the loss of many quicks. Will their reserve quicks come to the party.
6. Can Pakistan handle the intense pressure of a home campaign ?
7. Will India prove that the England series was just a trailer to a ICC trophy win ?

#TeamIndia #Australia #England #SouthAfrica #Pakistan #ChampionsTrophy #2025CT #ICC #BCCI

Participants:

• Vasant Kumar
• Ramakrishnan G Iyer
• Anand Kumar Sankaran
• Vijaykumar Balasubramanian

Also available on Apple Podcast and Spotify.

https://all-out-for-no-loss.captivate.fm/episode/preview-champions-trophy-2025