Last Updated on 2 months by Charbel Coorey
Hosts Pakistan have suffered an early exit from the 2025 Champions Trophy after two defeats in five days. They entered the tournament with hope after notable series wins in Australia and South Africa late last year, but yet again they have disappointed at an ICC event.
However, despite those series wins, no one can be surprised. Well, maybe except for the most passionate and optimistic Pakistan fans. Pakistan opted for similar balance to the squads that won in SENA conditions. In these conditions, their squad looked imbalanced with too many accumulators and lack of specialist spin options. Also, the way Gary Kirsten and Jason Gillespie have been treated over the past 12 months paints a clear picture of the instabilities within Pakistani cricket.
Plus, Pakistan performed woefully in both the 2023 ODI World Cup and 2024 T20 World Cup, and it is clear they haven’t learnt from those experiences.
Interim coach Aaqib Javed said Pakistan will surprise India on the eve of their showdown in Dubai. Instead, Pakistan repeated the same mistakes they made against New Zealand, digging themselves a deeper hole with every dot ball.
Now, Javed and his support team are set to be sacked. Whether he and his staff are the right people for the job is irrelevant. Pakistan continue to sack coaches in the hope things will change, rather than analysing their outdated approaches in ODI and T20I cricket.
Pakistan can rectify these issues by identifying the right talents in domestic cricket and setting up a pathway for them to succeed at international level, but they are reluctant to move away from this same core group of players. Jarrod Kimber put it quite nicely.
Pakistan fans react to team’s very disappointing early exit from the 2025 Champions Trophy
Pakistan’s poor batting and overall play drew heavy criticism from fans and pundits. After waiting 29 years to host another ICC event, Pakistan’s involvement in the tournament was very short lived, proving the doubters right around their credentials in this Champions Trophy.
Fans have called out Pakistan’s experienced players, who simply didn’t step up in these crunch games. Mohammad Rizwan’s 49 runs in the first two games came at a strike rate of 53.84. Babar Azam’s current total of 87 runs took 116 balls, including a 90-ball 64 that hurt Pakistan in the tournament opener. Also, the attack largely struggled for penetration, with no bowler taking more than two wickets across the two defeats.
“The hosts prepared for everything except Cricket,” wrote Kamran Muzaffer on X. “This got to be one of the worst Cricket preparation by a host in an ICC event, pretty close to England of 99 World Cup.”
Here are other reactions from disappointed Pakistan fans.
Pakistan’s final game of CT 2025 will be against Bangladesh at Rawalpindi on Thursday, February 27. Given the rain in Rawalpindi this week, both Pakistan and Bangladesh may exit the 2025 Champions Trophy without a single victory.
