India’s Schedule For Champions Trophy 2025 Locked With A Practice Match In Dubai

It has been nearly a week since the end of the five-match series of the Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2024-25 down under, where India finished it with a 3-1 series defeat to lose their hand from the title and get disqualified from the final of the World Test Championship (WTC) 2023-25 for the very first time.

The focus from the red-ball encounters has now shifted to the upcoming eight white-ball encounters, divided into five T20Is and three ODIs, at home against England, as India starts their preparation for the upcoming Champions Trophy 2025, scheduled to start on February 19 and run till March 09.

Even though the major half of the event will be played in Pakistan, the Blue Brigade got the chance to play all of their games at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium in the United Arab Emirates. This came after the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) wrote to the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to inform their decision not to travel due to security issues.

India to take part in a practice affair before the beginning of Champions Trophy 2025

In the initial stages, it was not confirmed if the ICC would be able to schedule India’s game outside Pakistan as the PCB chief, Mohsin Naqvi, was not prepared to admit the hybrid model, but later was forced to accept it after it was declared that till 2027, all the events of this category would follow the same route as none of these two teams would be required to trip each other.

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The Rohit Sharma-led side is likely to play a practice match in Dubai before the beginning of the group stage of the Champions Trophy. The ICC has been working out the practice facilities across all four venues, the Rawalpindi Stadium, the National Stadium in Karachi, and the Gaddafi Stadium of Lahore being the three others, in scheduling warm-up fixtures for the eight participating teams.

The ICC has been keeping a close eye on the renovation work of the three stadiums, as concern has been raised by the delegation, as the reports of India Today addressed on January 09. The PCB issued a statement on January 08, where they expressed that all of the work had been on time, which resulted in them shifting the upcoming tri-series involving South Africa and New Zealand in Lahore and Karachi.

There is a contingency plan in place, which is not unusual as all of the major events have that in place. The PCB allocated 17 billion rupees to upgrading the stadiums ahead of the Champions Trophy, which is the very first major tournament of cricket in that country since the 1996 ODI World Cup.

A report has claimed that ICC was exploring the possibility of moving all the games out of Pakistan and hosting the entire event in Dubai, but that case could be erased, as the new deadline of January 25, dismissing December 31 has given enough time for the grounds to be fully ready.

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“The responsibility for the venue lies with the host associations. Even the pitches are being worked on by them, although the ICC pitch manager oversees the process if required. It remains to be seen how things progress with the stadium construction. While there are always standby options, it is too early to comment on them.” The report explained.

India will end their home series against England on February 12, just eight days before their event opener against Bangladesh. Except for all the travel days, they could be taking part in one practice game. Having finished as the runners-up in the last edition, India will aim to go a step better this time around.