The Champions Trophy returns after an eight-year absence on Wednesday, with hosts Pakistan taking on New Zealand in the tournament opener in Karachi. (Full Coverage | More Cricket News)
🥀Axed from the calendar in 2017 as the ICC prioritised one tournament for each of international cricket's three formats, the 50-over competition features two groups of four teams, with the top two in each pool advancing to the semi-finals.
🍰There has been no shortage of storylines in the build-up to the competition, and there is plenty for cricket fans to get their teeth into between now and 9 March, the date of the final.
𝄹Can India, with Virat Kohli hunting tournament records, end their 12-year wait for an ODI title without the injured Jasprit Bumrah, and how will England perform after Brendon McCullum took over as white-ball coach?
𓄧We attempt to answer these questions, and many more, by delving into Opta's pre-tournament facts.
GROUP A
India
ဣNot since the 2013 Champions Trophy have India won a 50-over tournament. They have suffered two semi-final exits and a final defeat at home in 2023 at subsequent World Cups, while they lost the 2017 Champions Trophy final to Pakistan.
ౠBut with two titles and two runner-up finishes, India are the most successful team in Champions Trophy history, also making the semi-finals more often than any other team (five times). They certainly appear to be the team to beat this time around.
ꦏIndia, who will play their matches in the United Arab Emirates due to political tensions with Pakistan, suffered a huge blow last week when star paceman Jasprit Bumrah was ruled out with a lower back injury.
𓂃Bumrah claimed 71 Test wickets last year and was Player of the Tournament as India won the T20 World Cup, taking 15 wickets and bowling at an economy of 4.17 through 29.4 overs.
💯However, 23-year-old Harshit Rana deputised capably in their recent 3-0 series whitewash of England, and India's squad is still littered with talent.
𝄹Shubman Gill has been enjoying a dream run, achieving scores of 50+ in each of his three innings against England. No batter has more ODI centuries (six) or 50-plus scores (17) than Gill since the start of 2023.
🅘Then there is Virat Kohli, who is India's second-highest ODI run scorer.
ꦛThe batting great has Champions Trophy records in his sights. He heads into the tournament on 529 runs, only 262 short of the overall record (791 - Chris Gayle), and only requires 173 more to go past Shikhar Dhawan (701) as India's leading scorer in the competition.
ꦕHe requires just 37 runs to become the quickest player to reach 14,000 in the 50-over format, and 271 to surpass Kumar Sangakkara (14,234) as the second-highest all-time ODI scorer, after compatriot Sachin Tendulkar (18,426).
🌺Few would bet against Kohli racking up some of those impressive statistics, though it is worth noting he has only played five ODI matches since the start of 2024, and his 52 against England in Ahmedabad this month was his first half-century in the format since November 2023.
Pakistan
🔯Pakistan have held their Champions Trophy crown for eight years, and they will now defend it as co-hosts.
💜Only Sri Lanka in 2002 have ever won it as hosts, and only Australia (in 2006 and 2009) have ever won back-to-back editions.
ﷺMohammad Rizwan's team will be able to bank on passionate backing from their home supporters, and recent ODI series wins in South Africa (3-0) and Australia (2-1) showcased their quality.
ꦦHowever, their preparations have been far from smooth, with Aaqib Javed acting as interim head coach for the tournament after Gary Kirsten resigned last October following a power struggle with members of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).
✅Pakistan will come under intense scrutiny on home soil, and a positive start against New Zealand could be crucial, given they go to Dubai to face India in their third match.
🍷Captain Rizwan will hope to be a calming presence in the middle order, having contributed 16.2% of Pakistan's total runs (1,458) since the start of 2023.
New Zealand
🍨Led by new white-ball skipper Mitchell Santner, New Zealand are being tipped as genuine contenders to claim a second Champions Trophy crown.
﷽The Black Caps crushed Sri Lanka in a 3-0 series whitewash in January, winning the opener with nine wickets in hand and the latter two matches by 140 and 113 runs respectively, and they boast a balanced squad headlined by the long-serving Kane Williamson.
🌟Despite having passed the captaincy to Santner, Williamson remains New Zealand's key man. He has averaged 82.9 runs across the last three global ICC ODI events (2019 and 2023 World Cups, 2017 Champions Trophy) – the highest of any player to have scored at least 100 runs at those tournaments.
ꦗWith India favoured to progress as Group A winners and Bangladesh surely the weakest team at the tournament, the Black Caps' hopes could hinge on Wednesday's opener.
Bangladesh
🐈Bangladesh made the semi-finals when the Champions Trophy was last held, though they are considered outsiders here.
ꦐTheir form has been volatile lately. They lost an ODI series 3-0 to West Indies only to recover with a clean sweep in three T20Is, while all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan is a big-name omission from their squad.
🐠Thirty-nine-year-old Mahmudullah will have to draw on all his experience if Bangladesh are to have any chance of surviving Group A. He has logged a 50-plus score in each of his last four ODI innings and will also pitch in with spin bowling.
GROUP B
Australia
ꦬAustralia – the only team other than India to have won the Champions Trophy twice – are among the favourites, but they have been decimated by injuries recently.
💃Captain Pat Cummins, pacemen Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc and all-rounder Mitchell Marsh will all miss the tournament, while Marcus Stoinis' surprise retirement leaves them without another seasoned campaigner.
෴Australia's last major ODI tournament without any of Cummins, Hazlewood or Starc was the 2011 World Cup, but they still have plenty of experience to call upon.
ꦺSteve Smith, who recently oversaw a Test series win in Sri Lanka and is sixth among all Australia batter for ODI centuries (12), takes over as captain for this campaign.
𝐆With the ball, they will be hoping for big things from Adam Zampa, now the most experienced ODI bowler in their squad.
💛Since Zampa made his debut in the format in February 2016, only England's Adil Rashid (190) and Afghanistan's Rashid Khan (187) have more wickets than his 181, while Zampa has more four-wicket hauls in ODIs than any other player during that period (12).
♊Australia come into the tournament with a point to prove, too. They slumped to a 2-0 series defeat in Sri Lanka last week, so will be eager to show they are a force to be reckoned with despite the injuries.
England
🌃One theme of this tournament is that many of the heavyweights have problems to solve, and it is a similar story for England, who were whitewashed in India for their fourth straight ODI series defeat earlier this month.
🥂Fewer than two months after taking charge of the country's white-ball setup, head coach McCullum has already been forced to defend the team's work ethic amid suggestions they did not train enough on their tour of India.
༒England's two-year win rate in ODIs is just 41%, with only Bangladesh (37%) faring worse ahead of this tournament. England have been bowled out on 23 occasions in 46 ODIs since the start of 2022, having only been all out 20 times in 98 matches between 2016 and 2021.
🉐They will hope Joe Root's recent return to the format can turn the tide, while England also received a major boost last week as Ben Duckett was passed fit after sustaining a slight groin injury.
🧸Duckett averaged 61 through his five ODI matches in 2024, the highest average by any England opener in a calendar year since 2019.
South Africa
♉South Africa were the inaugural Champions Trophy winners in 1998, but that remains their only senior men's trophy in international cricket.
ꦆWhile Temba Bavuma will lead a talented squad in Pakistan, the Proteas have also suffered from less-than-ideal preparations, losing five straight ODI matches – including a failure to defend 352 against Pakistan last week – and seeing Gerald Coetzee and Anrich Nortje sidelined by injuries.
ওLanding alongside England, Australia and Afghanistan in Group B means reaching the semi-finals – which they have done four times since their 1998 triumph – will not be easy.
ꦦBut South Africa do have players with experience of impressing at the Champions Trophy, not least Kagiso Rabada. He bowled dot balls with 66% of his deliveries at the 2017 edition of the tournament – the highest rate of any player to bowl at least 10 overs.
Afghanistan
𓃲Tournament debutants Afghanistan have been tipped to spring a surprise or two, particularly with several heavyweights struggling with form and fitness issues.
🌜England, Pakistan and Sri Lanka were all beaten as Afghanistan finished a respectable sixth in the points table at the 50-over World Cup in 2023, with a first-ever semi-final appearance following at last year's T20 tournament.
🤡In Azmatullah Omarzai, Afghanistan boast the ICC Men's ODI Player of the Year for 2024, and his average of 47.7 is the best ever recorded by one of the country's players in the format.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Babar Azam
🎉An injury to Saim Ayub and the poor form of Abdullah Shafique have led to Babar, who tops the ODI batting rankings ahead of India's Gill, being promoted to opener, and that decision has provoked plenty of debate in Pakistan.
⭕Babar failed to cross the 30-run mark in any of his three innings in the recent tri-nation series featuring Pakistan, New Zealand and South Africa, and he will have to step things up here.
🌄However, he has 19 ODI centuries, putting him behind only Rohit Sharma (32) and Kohli (50) among active players.
Rohit Sharma
ಌAlways among the players to watch at any tournament, India star Rohit is just 12 runs away from bringing up 11,000 runs in ODIs.
ꩵHe would be just the fourth player to reach that figure for India, after Tendulkar, Kohli (13,963) and Sourav Ganguly (11,221).
Jos Buttler
♑England skipper Buttler has overseen two botched World Cup title defences in the last two years, and the pressure is on.
ꦐButtler will hope to contribute with both bat and in the field – he needs six catches to become the third player to record 20 in Champions Trophy history, after Kumar Sangakkara (33) and Adam Gilchrist (25).
Rashid Khan
꧂If Afghanistan are to upset some of the bigger nations, their spin attack will be key. Khan has a bowling average of 12.5 in ODIs since the start of 2024, the fourth-highest of any bowler to have bowled a minimum of 20 overs.
🧜Khan, fresh from overtaking Dwayne Bravo as the highest wicket-taker in T20 history, is the top-ranked ODI bowler and has at least one wicket in each of his six innings in that span, including a 5-19 outing against South Africa – one of Afghanistan's group-stage opponents – last September.
Heinrich Klaasen
🅰South Africa's batting lineup has been prone to collapse at times recently, so having a consistent operator like Klaasen to come in and add some big hitting to the middle order is key.
🔜He has a strike rate of 130.0 in ODIs since the start of last year, only bettered by Rohit (132.9) among all batters with at least 200 runs in that spell.
