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A total of eight teams will take part in the 2025 edition of the ICC Champions Trophy, which is set to be played from February 19 to March 9.
Rachin Ravindra predicts two finalists of Champions Trophy 2025. (Picture Credit: AFP)
Rachin Ravindra was in red-hot form for New Zealand in the ICC Men’s ODI World Cup 2023. The 25-year-old left-handed batter scored more than 500 runs for the Black Caps in the 10-team tournament and helped them qualify for the semifinals. Rachin, who has 945 runs and 18 wickets to his name in 28 ODIs played so far, is excited to play for the Kiwis now in the 2025 edition of the ICC Champions Trophy. The Champions Trophy, aka the mini World Cup, is making a comeback after eight years and will be played from February 19 to March 9 across three venues in Pakistan and one in Dubai.
New Zealand will face Pakistan in the tournament opener on February 19 at National Stadium in Karachi before taking on Bangladesh in Rawalpindi on February 24 and India in the last Group A match on March 2 in Dubai.
Ahead of the start of the eight-team tournament, Rachin, in a video shared by ICC on Instagram, has shared his excitement to play for the Kiwis in the Champions Trophy. “I think it’s amazing. Obviously, having a brief hiatus from the Champions Trophy and it coming back this year is very exciting. I think the format is amazing, being able to essentially play knockout games every single time. There’s context on every single game, which I think is super exciting and something I’m looking forward to.”
“You always play cricket to try and push yourselves and try and win the game, so for every game to have that onus on it is great,” he added.
The New Zealand star was also asked to predict the two finalists of the Champions Trophy. He ignored world No. 1 ODI team India and instead picked New Zealand and Australia as the two teams that will face each other in the summit clash on March 9.
“It’s always very hard to predict (finalists) that because you always want to say New Zealand because you’re involved. So hopefully we’re there. I mean, we’ll take it game by game, and the other groups, it’s pretty hard to count out people like Australia. I think they’re a really good team, and they’ve shown how strong they are in all formats. Current holders of the ODI World Cup too. So hopefully it’ll be a Trans-Tasman derby. But, we’ll take it game by game and see what happens.”
