Champions Trophy fever starts from today where title host Pakistan taking on the challengers New Zealand. Its a big game for Pakistan as its their first match of the tournament and they are the one who are hosting the tournament. The fans of Pakistan would be hoping their team would inaugrate the match with a win. 

Pakistan won the Champions Trophy title in 2017 led by Sarfaraz Khan,defeating their arch rivals India by the margin of 180 runs thanks to the innings of Fakhar Zaman who played extraordinary in that final scoring 116 of 108 balls which clearly depicted the huge difference between both the team. Due to Covid pandemic Champions Trophy was cancelled due to its orginate date. 

Read More : New Zealand Gets Another Setback Before Champions Trophy

Rizwan Gearing Up The Tone

ICC enclaved that the Champions Trophy will be held in 2025. Champions Trophy is played between top 8 teams who comes in ICC rankings. Pakistan are the hosts for the current Champions Trophy who are hosting the tournament after 14 long years. Due to major incident in 2009,International avoided travelling Pakistan. After a huge talk and stability ICC has awarded Pakistan to host the Champions Trophy. 

Its been 8 long years since Sarfaraz won the trophy way back on 2017 and after that there have been lot of changes in the team and now wicketkeeper Rizwan leading the current champion side. Mohammad Rizwan in his recent statment depicted that its been huge honour for him to represent Pakistan as captain. As title holder they will play at their best and will ensure that they will retain the trophy back. Pakistan is playing some exceptional cricket and will never dissapoint our fans at any cost. 

The Pathway To The Trophy

Pakistan have tried to get as maximum players who played the earlier edition. Fakhar Zaman remains top of their opening slot and prime member who gave the important glory to them. But still there are concerns rather than him. If you see recent scenario their main batsman Babar Azam is looking out of form. There are few concerns in bowling department too as they are leaking too much of runs at the end of overs. 

Recently Pakistan hosted a tri nation tournament between Pakistan, New Zealand and South Africa where the team played well but they couldn't manage to win the final as New Zealand won the final comfortably. Though captain Rizwan showed glimse of his form but alone he can't keep the fight along. They have lost the warm up match against New Zealand too which shows some worrying signs but Pakistan has the stability to produce a good match. 

Read More : Harbhajan Singh sighs huge warning To Be Aware Of This Pakistani Player Ahead Before Their Mega Clash

 The National stadium Karachi going to be full packed today as the champions Pakistan will take on New Zealand today at 2.30 Pm. 

Pakistan Squad : Mohammad Rizwan (captain), Salman Ali Agha (vice captain), Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman, Kamran Ghulam, Saud Shakeel, Tayyab Tahir, Faheem Ashraf, Khushdil Shah, Usman Khan, Abrar Ahmed, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Hasnain, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi

New Zealand squard : Mitchell Santner (captain), Michael Bracewell, Mark Chapman, Devon Conway (wicketkeeper), Matt Henry, Kyle Jamieson, Tom Latham (wicketkeeper), Daryl Mitchell, Will O’Rourke, Glenn Phillips, Rachin Ravindra, Ben Sears, Nathan Smith, Kane Williamson, Will Young