Pakistan captain Mohammad Rizwan has accepted that the Green Shirts are out of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 after their 6-wicket defeat to rivals India in Dubai on Sunday, February 23.
Pakistan, which lost the CT 2025 opening game to New Zealand in Karachi, had to beat India to stay alive in Group A. Rizwan won the toss and chose to bat first.
Saud Shakeel made 62, Rizwan made 46 and Khushdil Shah made 38 runs as Pakistan struggled their way to 241 all out. For India, Kuldeep Yadav took 3 wickets and Hardik Pandya took 2 wickets.
In response, Shubman Gill (46) and Shreyas Iyer (56) played good supporting roles as Virat Kohli, who scored 100* took India to the finishing line with 6 wickets in hand and 45 balls remaining. India is on top of the points table with 2 wins from 2 matches in Group A.
Pakistan, on the other hand, is at the bottom of the table with 2 losses in 2 outings. Speaking to reporters after the match, Rizwan conceded that his team’s campaign in the Champions Trophy has ended.
“For now, we can say that it’s over. This is the truth," Rizwan said in the post-match presser.
Despite Rizwan's admittance, the Pakistani squad is still competing in the semifinals. If Bangladesh defeats New Zealand on Monday, Pakistan defeats Bangladesh by a large margin on Thursday, and India defeats New Zealand by a large margin on Sunday, Pakistan may still finish in the top two and advance to the knockout rounds in Group A.
Rizwan, who was named Pakistan's ODI captain in October 2024, says he dislikes progressing by the back door.
“As a captain, I honestly don’t like this. If you can win, then do it. If you can’t, then don’t worry about it. I don’t care if you are sitting in someone else’s shadow. I don’t care if you are outside the tournament or in it. Yes, New Zealand has defeated us; India has defeated us. We accept it. We can play well; we can play badly. We can’t say that we should stay on someone else’s side. Allah has made this a chance; we can’t say anything about it," Rizwan said.
“In the next match, we’ll see what Bangladesh does with New Zealand, what New Zealand does with India, and what we do. It’s a long journey. Yes, we have hope and believe in Allah. Our dependence on the Champions Trophy has now come on other teams," he added.
Rizwan was questioned about Pakistan’s decision to play one proper spinner in Abrar Ahmed, but the skipper defended the selection.
He said: “You can’t say that we made a mistake by picking just one spinner. If you look at that Indian team also, they have Kuldeep (Yadav) as the front-line spinner. (Ravindra) Jadeja and Axar Patel are all-rounders. We also have Salman Ali Agha and Khushdil Shah. They bowled very well in the past."
The right-handed wicketkeeper-batter accepted that his teammates failed to fire with the bat in the must-win match.
“The middle order was not good enough. Yesterday in our meeting we discussed that on this pitch 270-280 runs would be enough. Because the outfield was slow and the pitch was slow. If we had scored 280, maybe the results would be different," Rizwan said.
“Me (46) and Saud Shakeel (62) tried to build a partnership and took a lot of time. But after that, the shot selection was poor, and that’s where they got a chance to take our wickets. After that, our middle order couldn’t take the pressure, and we couldn’t manage," he added.
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