Former Indian wicket-keeper Parthiv Patel has backed the Afghanistan cricket team to surprise the world during the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy 2025, set to commence on 19 February in Pakistan.
Patel, during a media interaction, stated that Afghanistan could be the dark horse of the mega event while predicting the final four teams.
“There’ll be India, Pakistan, South Africa, and Australia just given the record in the ICC trophies,” said Patel.
“But my dark horse is Afghanistan. They’ve got they’ve played really good cricket in the 50-over format.
“It was just that Glenn Maxwell’s innings otherwise I think they were right there in the race to reach the semifinals [of the ICC ODI World Cup 2023]. So you know Afghanistan could come in and surprise all other teams.”
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It’s worth noting that the ninth edition of the ICC Champions Trophy will kick off on 19 February with host and defending champions Pakistan taking on New Zealand in the curtain-raiser in Karachi’s National Bank Stadium.
Afghanistan will kick off their campaign with a clash against South Africa at Karachi’s newly renovated National Bank Stadium on February 21, before they face England and Australia at Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium.
For the unversed, Afghanistan’s performance in white-ball cricket has been strong recently — finishing sixth in the ICC ODI World Cup in 2023 and reaching the semi-final in last year’s T20 World Cup.
Afghanistan beat England and Pakistan in the ODI World Cup and Australia and New Zealand in the T20 World Cup.
Afghanistan squad for Champions Trophy 2025
Hashmatullah Shahidi (c), Rahmat Shah (vc), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ikram Alikhil (wk), Ibrahim Zadran, Sediqullah Atal, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mohammad Nabi, Gulbadin Naib, Rashid Khan, Nangyal Kharote, Noor Ahmad, Fazal Haq Farooqi, Naveed Zadran and Farid Ahmad Malik.
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