ICC Champions Trophy 2025 Schedule, Fixtures, Teams, Match Venue, Start Date

So, after a bit controversy, ICC is back with Champions Trophy 2025. Earlier, after the successful completion of Champions Trophy 2017 (Pakistan was the winner) held in England and Wales, ICC decided to scrap this tournament and bring Test championship into existence. But later in January 2024, ICC confirmed that the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy will be held in Pakistan. ICC Champions Trophy 2025 Schedule has been released but the sad news for the cricket lovers is the uncertainty of playing Cricket matches of India in Pakistan.

ICC Champions Trophy 2025 Start Date, Match Venue

ICC Champions Trophy 2025 is going to be held in Pakistan from 19 February to 9 March. ICC Champions trophy 2025 match venue of all 15 Cricket matches in the tournament will be held at Gaddafi Stadium, National Stadium, and Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium in Lahore, Karachi, and Rawalpindi respectively. But Indian Cricket team will play all their matches only in Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore.

The first match of this prestigious tournament will be played between New Zealand and host nation (Pakistan) at National Stadium, Karachi. The tournament will start with a blistering opening ceremony and will commence on 18 February, 2025. The two best performing teams will qualify for ICC Champions Trophy 2025 finals that will be held at The Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, Rawalpindi.

ICC Champions Trophy 2025 Teams & Groups

A total of eight teams will be playing in 2025 Champions Trophy. The teams have been finalized on the basis of their ODI rankings in February 2024. West Indies, unfortunately, missed out this tournament as it was on 9^th rank in ICC ODI Cricket Rankings. Bangladesh, fortunately, made it in the group of ICC Champions Trophy 2025 teams. The teams are divided into two groups which are as follows:

• Group A: India, Pakistan, New Zealand, Bangladesh
• Group B: Australia, South Africa, England, Afghanistan

ICC Champions Trophy History & Winners So Far

Earlier, in 1998 and 2000, the Champions trophy was based on the knockout system. But after that, this tournament was played with round robin technique. ICC 2025 Champions Trophy will be played with round robin technique and the semi-finals and final are going to be a straight knock-out. The very first Champions Trophy 1998 tournament was won by South Africa defeating West Indies in the finals. In the year 2000, New Zealand won the trophy by defeating India. In 2002, Sri Lanka and India were the joint winners as the final match was washed out twice. In 2004, West Indies won this trophy thrashing England in the finals. In 2006, Australia thrashed West Indies in finals.

In 2008, the Champions Trophy was going to be held in Pakistan, but due to major security concerns, it was postponed to 2009. Australia again won this tournament defeating New Zealand. In 2013, the winner was India, who defeated England in the rain-affected the final match. After that ICC decided to scrap this tournament and start a Test Championship. But this idea was dropped out and the Champions Trophy Cricket Tournament was scheduled to 2025.

ICC Champions Trophy 2025 Schedule & Fixtures

ICC announces the 2025 Champions Trophy schedule on 1^st February, 2023, a year before that start of Champions Trophy in 2025. ICC Champions Trophy 2025 fixtures are really interesting as the groups are distributed evenly. Some of the matches will be played as Day matches while some will be played as Day/Night matches, according to the schedule. The Day matches will start at 10.30 Pakistan time while the Day/Night matches will start at 13.30 Pakistan time. Here is the ICC Champions Trophy Schedule 2025: