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Afghanistan have never been a part of any edition of the Champions Trophy before. It makes sense. Only the best eight qualify for it, and the last time this tournament was played Afghanistan hardly ever played the big guys. But now they are the big guys themselves and their skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi wants the world to catch up to that.  They will begin their maiden Champions Trophy campaign against South Africa in Pakistan, a country where they have hardly ever played international cricket. Do they have every reason to succumb to the pressure? Yes. But the Afghanistan skipper is not…

Afghanistan don’t see themselves as underdogs anymore, and it is high time the world accepts them for who they are: brilliant yet astonishingly underrated. They are not just a team that pops into relevance only when discussions about their boycott surface. And with every tournament, they are further debunking the narrative and proving they deserve to be among the best. Their recent performances speak volumes about the kind of team they have become. They defeated Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and England in the ODI World Cup in India and reached the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup last year. Now placed…

Plenty has been happening at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium lately, but a one-day game between two full-member nations hasn’t been part of that plenty since 2018. That changes now. The match between Bangladesh and India will be the first such game in nearly seven years. It’s a clash that wasn’t originally supposed to be here. But after a rollercoaster of discussions, drama, and urgency, here we are. And if you thought the drama ended with scheduling games at an alternative venue, you may need to think again. We’re only on the second game of the Champions Trophy, yet the…

It’s a big day for Pakistan. No matter what lens you view it through, they are at the heart of the action. They are beginning the title defense of the only ICC event they managed to win in 16 years. They are hosting a global tournament for the first time since 1996. They have plenty to prove and even more to disprove, both on and off the field. And all that, with the margin of error razor-thin The first of their three group-stage games is set to be played against New Zealand at the National Stadium in Karachi. Karachi has…

Afghanistan’s rise in the world of cricket seems almost fictional. Success stories like theirs are usually only confined to fables because, in the real world, you don’t make it to the summit as quickly as they did. This will be their first-ever appearance in the Champions Trophy, but you have been warned, they ought not to be taken lightly. If, in less than 20 days, you find Afghanistan securing a place in the semi-finals, don’t be surprised. They are no longer just underdogs, they are here to win it. And they have every reason to believe they can. For one,…

Australia’s Champions Trophy squad has come together like a group of adults struggling to plan a meetup. Everyone finally agrees on time, but at the last minute, someone cancels. One falls sick, another has an emergency to deal with, and before you know it, half the group has ditched the plan. The past few weeks have been very similar for Australia. Three of their regulars picked injuries (Mitchell Marsh, Pat Cummins, and Josh Hazlewood), one backed out for personal reasons (Mitchell Starc), and another decided it was the best time to pull the plug on his career (Marcus Stoinis).  Replacements…

The protocol, when your best batter first starts showing signs of struggle with his form, is that you don’t talk about it, lest you curse it into reality. Some would call it superstition, others, denial. But both Babar Azam and Pakistan are past that stage. They are where the elephant in the room has grown too big to be ignored. And even if they wish to look the other way, the pressing thoughts of a mega-event inching closer each day would not allow that. Babar last scored a century in August 2023, that too against Nepal in a home Asia…

National Stadium, Karachi has hosted nine ODI games since cricket’s return to Pakistan, as many as six of these were played between Pakistan and New Zealand. But none of these games had as many stakes involved as the upcoming Tri-series Final. In addition to deciding who gets crowned as the winner of this once-in-a-blue-moon ODI tri-series, the final will be a de-facto warm-up game between both sides, who will play the opening game of the Champions Trophy in about five days at the same venue.  New Zealand have come to the final unscathed. They defeated Pakistan and then followed it…

Successfully defending a low score is a classic cricket trope. One that never fails to smash the box office. When nothing else seems to be working, a low-scoring thriller always does. Sri Lanka were reeling at 55-5 at one point in the game but from there the skipper Charith Asalanka dragged his side back to the game inch by inch. At innings break, 214 runs seemed far from a decent total, but on a pitch offering swing and seam so generously that was the best the visitors could manage. From there, the hosts’ best bet was to punch above their…

Both teams have lost their share of one game, which is why this game is some sort of a virtual semi-final. Whoever wins this, plays New Zealand in the final on Saturday and also gets an extra game before the Champions Trophy begins next week. Luckily, for both South Africa and Pakistan, they played each other just a few weeks ago in the same format. But the visitors would not want to recall that. And rightly so, Pakistan handed them a one-for-the-ages whitewash in their backyard. The Proteas would not want anything resembling that series being repeated here.  In South…