ICC Champions Trophy: India Beats Pakistan, Kohli Creates Another Record
ICC Champions Trophy 2025 faces controversies, Pakistan’s blunders, and India’s dominance, leaving fans disappointed.
The 2025 ICC Champions Trophy, hosted by Pakistan, has been full of excitement, controversies, and some big mistakes. While fans are enjoying the matches with Indian Sign Language (ISL) interpretations for India’s games, the tournament has faced several hiccups even before it began.
Pakistan’s Poster Blunder
One of the first controversies was a mistake in Pakistan’s tournament poster. The poster featured Rovman Powell, the captain of the West Indies T20I team. But here’s the catch—the West Indies didn’t even qualify for the Champions Trophy! Social media users quickly noticed the error and trolled Pakistan. One user joked, “Pakistanis are very knowledgeable,” while another said, “Only Pakistan can do this.”
India-Pakistan Tensions
Even before the tournament started, there were reports that India didn’t want Pakistan’s name on their jerseys. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) called this move “mixing politics with cricket.” However, the ICC stepped in and made it clear that all teams, including India, must follow the rules and wear the official logo with Pakistan’s name. If India refused, they could face strict action.
India also decided not to play any matches in Pakistan, citing “security reasons.” All of India’s matches are being played in Dubai instead. During the India vs Bangladesh match, another mistake happened when the broadcast logo didn’t show Pakistan as the host. The ICC called it a “technical error” and promised to fix it.
More Controversies
The troubles didn’t stop there. During a match in Lahore, the wrong national anthem was played before the Australia vs England game. Instead of Australia’s anthem, the start of India’s anthem was played, causing more embarrassment.
There were also reports of three kit bags from the South African team being stolen. To make matters worse, New Zealand’s Rachin Ravindra suffered a forehead injury during a warm-up match in Lahore. Many blamed the poor placement of floodlights for the incident.
Pakistan’s Disappointing Performance
Pakistan’s hopes of reaching the semi-finals were dashed when New Zealand beat Bangladesh on 24th February 2025. Pakistan had a rough start to the tournament, losing to New Zealand in Karachi. Their match against India was crucial, but things didn’t go well.
Pakistan’s batsman Babar Azam started strong, but the team couldn’t keep up the momentum. Captain Mohammad Rizwan struggled, and wickets fell quickly, leaving Pakistan with just 241 runs. India’s Virat Kohli dominated the chase, scoring a century and reaching a milestone of 14,000 ODI runs. He also broke Sachin Tendulkar’s record to become the fastest player to reach this mark.
However, former cricketer Sunil Gavaskar suggested that Pakistan’s Shaheen Shah Afridi might have bowled wides on purpose to stop Kohli from scoring his century. Gavaskar said, “Pakistan didn’t want a record made against them.” India won the match by 6 wickets.
What’s Next?
This is the first time in 29 years that Pakistan is hosting an ICC tournament, but their team’s poor performance has left fans disappointed. On the other hand, India is looking strong. Can they win the tournament this year? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
