Pakistan Cricket Board confident that India will travel to Pakistan to play ICC Champions Trophy 2025

Hyderabad: Even as the conundrum over whether the Indian cricket team will travel to Pakistan to compete in the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 persists, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Mohsin Naqvi was confident over India’s participation in the marquee ICC tournament.

Bilateral series between India and Pakistan have taken a hit after the prevailing political tension between the two countries.

The two nations only meet in global tournaments, most notably the World Cups, the Champions Trophy and the Asia Cup etc.

Given that Pakistan are the hosts of the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy 2025, it remains to be seen if India would travel to Pakistan to play in the tournament. The last time Pakistan hosted a multi-nation tournament was the Asia Cup in 2023 and India’s refusal to travel to Pakistan meant the tournament was held in a hybrid model with India playing all their matches in Sri Lanka while Pakistan played at home.

However, Naqvi was confident that the Indian team would not cancel their trip to Pakistan. “The Indian team should come. I don't see them cancel or postpone coming here and we are confident we will host all the teams in the Champions Trophy in Pakistan,” Naqvi told journalists in Lahore.

The PCB, in an interim schedule shared to the ICC, has based India out of Lahore. Given the proximity to the Indian border and given the logistics needed to manage, the Indian team has been scheduled to play all their matches at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.

Although Rawalpindi and Karachi have been allotted a semi-final each, if India makes it to the semi-final, the match will be shifted to Lahore.

The stadiums in Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi have been undergoing a makeover for the marquee ICC tournament and Naqvi was confident that the work is on schedule. “The stadiums will also be ready to host the matches on schedule and any remaining work would be completed after the tournament. In a way, you can say that we are going to have a brand new stadium,” he added.

The top-brass of the BCCI have declined to comment on India’s travel plans to Pakistan for the tournament by saying that it is left to the government to decide.

The ICC Champions Trophy will be held from February 19, 2025 and the final is scheduled to be played on March 9, 2025.