Sarfaraz Ahmed picks Champions Trophy 2025 semifinalists, omits big team

Former Pakistan captain has made bold predictions for the Champions Trophy 2025 as the tournament starts from February 19.

"When Pakistan play New Zealand in Karachi next week, it will mark the first senior ICC event held in my homeland since 1996 and to say we are bursting with excitement would be an understatement," he said.

"Karachi is a fitting host for the opening game and it will kick-start three weeks of brilliant cricket in a tournament that changed my life. Winning this trophy in 2017 was the best day of my cricket career. Although it is eight years ago now, every June when the anniversary comes round, I see videos on social media and it gives me goosebumps".

"Pakistan have a really good chance of defending that title and I think they have a strong team. Some of the boys from 2017 are still there and we're talking about some of the best - especially Babar Azam," the ex-Pakistan skipper added.

Sarfaraz also reckons "there will be pressure. Pakistan being at home, being the defending champions, there will be high expectations, but the fans will get behind them."

Sarfaraz picks semifinalists

"If I had to pick four semi-finalists, I'd probably go for Pakistan, India, Australia and Afghanistan at this stage, but I would not rule anyone out," Sarfaraz picked.

The former Pakistan captained surprisingly omitted both South Africa and New Zealand from the list - who have been powerhouses in international cricket in recent times.

Among Pakistan's group stage matches, the huge clash against India will be a special occasion, says the 2017 Champions Trophy-winning captain.

"Whenever we meet, it is a special occasion and there is so much hype and pressure around it. But as players, you need to stay calm, try and block that noise out and just play with the same intensity as you would play Australia or any other team," he added.

Sarafaraz also recollected his memory of beating India in the CT 2017 final and says after getting beaten in the group stages, they made a few changes and changed the mindset.

"We changed our mindset from that day. The acrimony was very good for us, we made a couple of changes to the team and it helped our confidence. We beat South Africa and became unstoppable. Our head coach, Mickey Arthur, and I were so confident we would do well. We had come through a really tricky series against the West Indies, which was key for 2019 World Cup qualification, and were the bottom-ranked side in the tournament. We felt we had nothing to lose and so took as much pressure as we could away from the players," Sarfaraz concluded.