Babar Azam [Source: ICC Cricket]
One of the world’s best batters, Babar Azam, holds the key for Pakistan in their home ICC Champions Trophy 2025 tournament and he reveals his thoughts ahead of their first game.
In what will be Pakistan’s first ICC tournament played on home soil since 1996, there is a lot on the line for this team.
Pakistan are the defending Champions Trophy title holders, winning in 2017, and one thing that carries over from that success eight years ago is the presence of none other than Babar Azam.
He was instrumental, as a budding 22-year-old, with the cricketing world at his feet, when Pakistan reigned supreme in the UK. And now, as a 30-year-old and one of the top batters in the world according to the ICC’s ODI Rankings, he will look to help his side do it all again.
“As a player, I am very excited, and all the fans are excited,” Babar said.
“A lot has changed since the Champions Trophy was held in 2017. We have new players coming, we only have three or four players who were part of that winning team. But the belief, confidence and execution are the same.”
As Babar points out, a lot has changed.
Pakistan have recently faced a period of challenging coaching change, off the back of group stage elimination in the last two ICC tournaments, most recently the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 that included a notable loss to the USA.
