The tournament shall see a tough competition with as few as eight teams being part of the competition in the group of four teams. It will be the first time in almost thirty years that Pakistan will be hosting an ICC major tournament, the last being during the 1996 World Cup. Ahead of this tournament, former Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar named the four teams he felt could very well make the semi-finals. What is surprising is that Akhtar specifically omitted the mention of current world champions Australia.
Instead, he put up a prediction of Afghanistan, a decidedly unexpected semifinalist.
“Afghanistan could reach the semi-finals if they play with the maturity required. He expressed during a media interaction in Dubai that “I believe Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan should reach the 2025 Champions Trophy semifinals.”
Afghanistan continue to impress in every ICC tournament: from being sixth – crickets but missing the 2023 World Cup semifinals – they reached for the last four T20 tournaments in 2024.
However, there were no fourth teams Akhtar considered, at least yet.
That would mean, at least, Akhtar feels that New Zealand would be eliminated alongside Bangladesh since India and Pakistan joined that group anyways.
Afghanistan, Australia, England, and South Africa will form the other group.
Akhtar laid specific predictions for the much-anticipated India-Pakistan game.
“I’m hopeful that on February 23 Pakistan will beat India; I would say both should meet in the finals of the tournament,” he mentioned.
The final saw India and Pakistan meet in 2017 when Pakistan won by a massive 180 runs to take the cup.
