Pakistan vs New Zealand 2025 ICC Champions Trophy
March 8, 2025
Champions Trophy 2025 is going to start from 19 Feb at National Bank Stadium, Karachi, Pakistan. Champions Trophy is a major event of ICC and is being organized after 8 years. Pakistan won this trophy by defeating India in 2017 and the first match will be Pakistan vs Zealand. 8 teams are participating in this tournament and they have been placed in 2 groups. Group A includes India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and New Zealand, while Group B includes Afghanistan, England, Australia and South Africa.
In the last five encounters, New Zealand has won 3 times and Pakistan 2 times. Pakistan will have the advantage of playing in its home conditions, while New Zealand has defeated Pakistan in the final of the tri-series
Pakistan vs New Zealand Preview
Pakistan and New Zealand will start their Champions Trophy by playing against each other. New Zealand is coming after defeating Pakistan by 5 wickets in the Tri-Nation Series which ended on Friday, while Pakistan has also shown a very good performance in this series. Pakistan has made the highest run chase against South Africa.
Pakistan last won an ICC trophy in 2017. The last time Pakistan won the Champions Trophy was in 2017 where Pakistan defeated India by 180 runs.
India vs Pakistan 2017 Champions Trophy Final scorecard shows that India won the toss and invited Pakistan to bat first but Pakistan scored a huge score of 338 runs. Fakhar Zaman played a brilliant innings of 114 runs. In reply, India was all out for 158 runs. Hardik Pandya scored the highest 76 runs in 43 balls for India. Pakistan defeated India for the first time in an ICC final.
Pakistan Squad for ICC Champions Trophy 2025
Mohammad Rizwan (c), Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman, Kamran Ghulam, Saud Shakeel, Tayyab Tahir, Faheem Ashraf, Khushdil Shah, Salman Ali Agha, Usman Khan, Abrar Ahmed, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Hasnain, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi.
Strengths Pakistan Cricket Team in ICC Champions Trophy 2025
The tournament will be played in Pakistan, so obviously Pakistan has complete home advantage, and will also play a match against India in Dubai. Dubai is also called Pakistan’s second home ground. Just before the Champions Trophy, Pakistan has also played a tri-nation series at home, so it would want to take full advantage of it.
Pakistan’s recent form has been very good, they have won their last 3 series. They have defeated South Africa and Australia in their home ground and there is an advantage of playing at home because the noise of the crowd will support Pakistan.
Pakistan team is a very good ODI team, there are many big match winners in the batting order.
A lot of spin all-rounders have been picked who are extremely talented and Pakistan would want to use all their players properly.
Weaknesses Pakistan Cricket Team in ICC Champions Trophy 2025
Pakistan’s weakness is not new, it has been there for many years. Even though they are the defending champions, they lost to them in the 2024 T20 and could not even qualify. They lost to Afghanistan in the 2023 ODI World Cup. This team keeps going up and down. Pakistan team is predictable, this is a big challenge for them. This is a big opportunity for Pakistan because the tournament is being played at home.
Pakistan Probable Playing 11 Against New Zealand
Fakhar Zaman, Saud Shakeel, Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan (c), Salman Ali Agha, Khushdil Shah, Faheem Ashraf, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, Abrar Ahmed.
Pakistan’s batting will revolve around Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan and Fakhar Zaman. Everyone will also keep an eye on Saud Shakeel, Abrar Ahmed and Khushdil Shah to see how they perform.
