Jay Shah discussed the possibility of India participating in the ICC Champions Trophy 2025, considering that the tournament is slated to take place in Pakistan.
There is significant uncertainty surrounding the Indian cricket team’s participation in the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 in Pakistan. Despite being just about a year away from the tournament, Jay Shah, the Secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), hasn’t confirmed India’s involvement. He mentioned that it’s contingent on the government’s decision.
The last time India toured Pakistan was back in 2006 for a multi-format series, marking the last Test match between the two nations. Since the bilateral series in 2012-13, they’ve only faced each other in ICC and ACC tournaments.
Their most recent clash was in the ICC Men’s ODI World Cup 2023, where Pakistan, led by Babar Azam, visited India. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a disappointing campaign for the Pakistani side.
“How can I decide that? ICC will decide. Whatever the government decides, things will happen accordingly,” Shah told the reporters on the sidelines of the ceremony to name Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Rajkot after former board secretary Niranjan Shah.
Since February 2006, the Test cricket between the two neighboring countries has been on hiatus due to heightened political tensions. This deadlock is expected to persist unless the teams cross paths in either the World Test Championship (WTC) final or if bilateral relations are restored.
In the meantime, the teams have clashed in the ICC Champions Trophy and World Cup events, with the most recent encounter being the World Cup 2023 in India. Unfortunately, the Babar Azam-led side couldn’t advance to the semifinals.
Looking ahead to the T20 World Cup 2024 in the USA and West Indies, it has been confirmed that Rohit Sharma will captain the Indian T20I team for the mega event. Hardik Pandya, who took over the reins after the T20 World Cup in 2022 before succumbing to injury, will serve as his deputy.
“Rohit was captaining (in the past in other formats) and he came back for the Afghanistan series, which means we were going to let him continue forward. Hardik Pandya will be India’s vice-captain in the T20 World Cup 2024. We all saw how Hardik got injured in ODI World Cup 2023, so we were thinking about who to hand over the captaincy role to,” said Jay Shah.
In Rajkot, the third Test of the five-match series between India and England is underway, with India taking their turn to bat on a pitch that favors the batsmen.
