ICC Champions Trophy begins in Pakistan today
….( Asghar Ali Mubarak )…
The 9th edition of the ICC Champions Trophy begins in Pakistan today (Wednesday). Pakistan is not only the host of this tournament but also has to defend its title, which was won by the Pakistan team in 2017.
Pakistan is the seventh country to win the Champions Trophy. Earlier, India, Australia, West Indies, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and South Africa have won this One Day International trophy.
This is the first time that Pakistan is hosting the mega event Champions Trophy. 8 teams are participating in this tournament, which are divided into two groups. Group A includes Pakistan, India, New Zealand and Bangladesh, while Group B consists of England, Australia, South Africa and Afghanistan.
Each team will play one match each with the other three teams in its group and then the top two teams from both groups will be eligible to play the semi-finals based on points and run rate. The two teams that won the knockout stage will face each other in the final for the trophy.
India is not ready to send its team to Pakistan due to political tensions, so India’s matches will be played in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. After its three group matches, India’s semi-finals and final will also be played in Dubai. Thus, the UAE will assist Pakistan in hosting the 9th edition of the Champions Trophy.
India and Australia have won this trophy twice, while Australia is the only country to win this trophy twice in a row. The other 4 permanent ICC members – England, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and Ireland – have not won the Champions Trophy. Despite reaching the final twice (2004 and 2013), England could not become the champion.
Bangladesh reached the semi-finals once in 2017, while Zimbabwe could never go beyond the first round. Thirteen countries have participated in the Champions Trophy so far. Of these, seven have played all editions. These include Australia, England, South Africa, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan.
Among the other countries, West Indies have participated 7 times, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe 5 times, Kenya 3 times, while the Netherlands and the United States have participated in the tournament once each.
The first edition of the ICC Champions Trophy was played in Bangladesh in 1998. At that time, it was called the ICC Knockout Trophy. The second edition was also played in Kenya in 2002 under the same name.
Nine teams participated in the first tournament and 11 teams in the second. Then its name was changed to the ICC Champions Trophy and it has been played under the same name since 2002. The host of the Champions Trophy in 2002 was Sri Lanka.
It is the only country to have won the tournament while hosting it. However, India also participated in this victory because the final played between these two countries could not be completed due to rain, so both were declared winners. 12 teams participated in this edition.
The next tournament, which was held in England in 2004, was attended by 12 teams. Then in 2006, 10 teams participated in the tournament hosted by India. After this, the format of the Champions Trophy was changed and it was decided that this tournament would be held after 4 years instead of every two years like the One Day International World Cup, while only 8 teams would participate in each tournament and these would be the top 8 teams in the One Day International World Cup played before the trophy.
Therefore, every tournament of this trophy is being played according to the same format since 2009. In 2009, the Champions Trophy was played in South Africa. Then, after a gap of 4 years, two consecutive tournaments were played in 2013 and 2017, hosted by England and Wales.
However, no tournament could be played after 2017 and now, after a gap of 7 years, it is being held in Pakistan. So far, 6 countries have hosted 8 editions of the Champions Trophy.
England has been the host three times, while Bangladesh, Kenya, Sri Lanka, India and South Africa have hosted once each. Now, Pakistan is the 7th country to host this tournament. So far, a total of 13 countries have participated in the Champions Trophy.
India has played the most matches, which is 29, while it has also won the most matches (18) while it has faced defeat in 8 matches. Its success rate is 69.23%, which is higher than other teams. Sri Lanka played 27 matches and England played 25 matches, while South Africa, New Zealand and West Indies played 24 matches.
Pakistan played 23 matches, winning 11 and losing 12. Its win rate is 47.82%. In this regard, it is at the 7th position. Among the other countries, Bangladesh played 12 matches and won only two, while Zimbabwe played 9, Kenya 5, Netherlands 2 and USA also played 2 matches, but none of them could win.
Afghanistan, which has never been a part of the Champions Trophy, is now participating in it for the first time after qualifying for the current edition.The highest scoring nation in an innings during the Champions Trophy is New Zealand.
They scored 347 runs for the loss of 4 wickets in the stipulated 50 overs against the USA at The Oval, London in the 2004 edition. Pakistan’s highest score is 338 runs for the loss of 4 wickets in 50 overs, which they scored against India at The Oval itself in the 2017 tournament.
The record for the lowest score in an innings was set in 2004 when Australia bowled out the entire USA team for just 65 runs in 24 overs at Southampton. Pakistan’s lowest score is 89 runs, which they scored in 25 overs against South Africa at Mohali in 2006.
The biggest win in terms of runs was achieved by New Zealand. They defeated the USA by 210 runs at The Oval in 2004. Pakistan’s biggest win is by 180 runs against arch-rivals India at The Oval in 2017.
The biggest win by wickets was by 10 wickets against West Indies in Jaipur in 2006. Pakistan’s biggest win was by 9 wickets against Sri Lanka in Nairobi in 2000. India won by the fewest runs in the history of the Champions Trophy.
They beat England by just 5 runs in Birmingham in 2013, while the smallest win by wickets was achieved by New Zealand in the same tournament, beating Sri Lanka by just one wicket in Cardiff. Pakistan’s smallest win by runs is 19 runs against South Africa in Birmingham in 2017, while its smallest win by wickets is three wickets, achieved twice, once against India in Birmingham in 2004 and the second time against Sri Lanka in Cardiff in 2017.
The highest run-scoring batsman in the Champions Trophy is West Indies’ Chris Gayle, who scored 791 runs at an average of 52.73 in 17 matches.
This record is held by Pakistan’s Mohammad Yousuf, who scored 484 runs in 13 One-Day Internationals at an average of 48.40. This record is jointly held by two batsmen.
New Zealand’s Nathan Astle scored 145 not out against the United States at the Oval in 2004 and Zimbabwe’s Andy Flower scored 145 against India in Colombo in 2002. The highest score by Pakistan is 128, scored by Shoaib Malik against India in Centurion in 2009. A total of 50 individual centuries have been scored in all eight editions of the Champions Trophy.
The highest number of centuries has been scored by India, with 10. Among the other teams, Sri Lanka scored 7, West Indies 6, South Africa 6, England 5, Pakistan 4, Bangladesh 4, Australia 3, New Zealand 3 and Zimbabwe scored two individual centuries. India’s Shikhar Dhawan and Sourav Ganguly, South Africa’s Herschelle Gibbs and West Indies’ Chris Gayle scored 3 centuries each. Saeed Anwar scored two centuries for Pakistan.
The record for most runs in a tournament is held by West Indies’ Chris Gayle. He scored 474 runs at an average of 79.00 in 8 matches played in the tournament played in India in 2006-07. The highest run-scorer for Pakistan in any tournament of the Champions Trophy is Fakhar Zaman, who scored 252 runs at an average of 63.00 in 4 matches played in England in 2017.
New Zealand fast-medium bowler Kyle Mills has taken the most wickets in the Champions Trophy. He took 28 wickets at an average of 17.25 in 15 matches.
This record for Pakistan was set by Shahid Afridi, who took 14 wickets in 13 matches at an average of 30.50. The best bowling performance in an innings was by Sri Lankan Faruiz Mehrotra.
He took 6 wickets for just 14 runs against the West Indies at Brabourne in the 2006 edition. Apart from him, only one other bowler, Australia’s Josh Hazlewood, has taken 6 wickets in an innings in the Champions Trophy.
He achieved this feat for 52 runs against New Zealand in Birmingham in 2017. Shahid Afridi took 5 wickets for just 11 runs against Kenya in Birmingham in 2004. In the 8 editions of the Champions Trophy played so far, a total of 40 bowlers have taken 4 or more wickets in an innings 47 times. Seven bowlers have achieved this feat twice,
including New Zealand’s Mitchell McClenaghan and Kyle Mills, Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan and Lasith Malinga, Zimbabwe’s Douglas Hondo, England’s Liam Plunkett and West Indies’ Marvin Dillon.
Of these 40 bowlers, nine have taken five wickets in an innings and two have taken six. Four Pakistani bowlers have taken four wickets in an innings, while Shahid Afridi is the only Pakistani bowler to take five wickets in an innings. Two bowlers share this record, Pakistan’s Hasan Ali and West Indies’ Jerome Taylor.
Hassan took 13 wickets at an average of 14.69 in 5 matches played in England in 2017, while Taylor took the same number of wickets at an average of 22.07 in 7 matches played in India in 2006-07.
The wicketkeeper who has taken the most wickets from behind the wickets in the Champions Trophy is Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara, who has taken 33 wickets in 22 One-Day Internationals. These include 28 catches and 5 stumpings.
The wicketkeeper who has taken the most wickets from Pakistan is Kamran Akmal, who has taken 14 wickets in 10 matches, including 11 catches and 3 stumpings.
The record for the most catches in the tournament is also held by Sangakkara, who took 15 catches in 6 matches in India in 2006-07, including 13 catches and two stumpings. This record was set by Sarfaraz Ahmed for Pakistan, who took 9 catches in 5 matches in England in 2017, all of which were catches.
The record for taking the most catches as a fielder is held by Mahela Jayawardene of Sri Lanka, who took 15 catches in 22 matches.
The Pakistani fielder who took the most catches in the Champions Trophy is Shoaib Malik. He took 9 catches in 20 matches.
The record for the most catches is held by Ross Taylor of New Zealand. He took 9 catches in 5 matches in the 2009-10 tournament played in South Africa.
This record has been jointly set by Shoaib Malik and Babar Azam for Pakistan. Shoaib took 4 catches in 3 matches in India in 2006-2007 and Babar took 5 catches in 5 matches in England in 2017.
The record for playing the most matches in the Champions Trophy is jointly set by two Sri Lankan players, Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara. Both have played 22 One-Day Internationals. Shoaib Malik has played the most matches for Pakistan, with 20.
The player who has played the most matches as a captain in the Champions Trophy is Australia’s Ricky Ponting. He led his team in 16 matches.
Out of these, Australia won 12 matches while they lost 3. Ponting’s success rate was 80.00%. Pakistan was captained by Younis Khan in the most matches.
Under his leadership, Pakistan played 6 matches, out of which they won two and lost 4. His success rate was 33.33%. So far, 8 players have been honored to lead Pakistan in the Champions Trophy. Now, Muhammad Rizwan will captain the Green Shirts in the 9th edition as the 9th Pakistani captain. Recently, under his leadership,
Pakistan became the first country to clean sweep South Africa in an ODI series on its soil and last week in Karachi against the Proteas, he managed to surpass Pakistan’s biggest target in ODI cricket with great skill and courage,
batting, wicketkeeping and captaincy. Although Pakistan could not win the tri-nation series, it is expected that Pakistan will be able to defend its title in the Champions Trophy under the leadership of wicketkeeper-batsman Muhammad Rizwan, which it achieved in 2017 under the captaincy of another wicketkeeper-batsman, Sarfaraz Ahmed.
