Pakistan is set to defend their ICC Champions Trophy title as the historic 2025 edition of the tournament kicks off today, February 19, in Karachi. This marks the first time Pakistan has hosted a major ICC event since 1996, making it a significant moment for the nation and its cricket fans.
Pakistan will have the to begin with major cricket competition in nearly three decades from Wednesday with the Green Shirts, champs of the 2017 version, taking on Modern Zealand in the opening coordinate of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 at the National Stadium in Karachi.
The to begin with ball of the coordinate will be bowled at 2pm PST.
Pakistan final facilitated an ICC occasion in 1996 — ICC Cricket World Glass 1996, which concluded with the last at the Gaddafi Stadium, where Sri Lanka vanquished Australia by seven wickets.
Pakistan got to be a no-go zone for worldwide sides in 2009 after psychological militants assaulted a transport carrying Sri Lanka’s group in Lahore, injuring a few players and slaughtering eight policemen and civilians. But with a clearing crackdown that begun in 2014 and kept going a few a long time, security has endlessly progressed in the South Asian nation.
Test cricket returned to Pakistan in 2019 and Australia, Britain, Unused Zealand and South Africa afterward visited the nation, making a difference Pakistan´s offered to have the tournament.
The eight-team competition will be played over three scenes in Pakistan – Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi – as well as in Dubai, Joined together Middle easterner Emirates (UAE) from 19 February to 9 March.
The build-up has not been without issues after neighbors and arch-rivals India denied to play in Pakistan over long-standing political pressures. A powerhouse of the don on and off the pitch, India will instep play their matches in Dubai.
The nation has ventured up security, particularly in have cities Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi, indeed if assaults in major cities are progressively uncommon.