 "Champions Trophy 2025: Are security concerns in Pakistan to blame for Australia missing a large chunk of key players?")
The ICC Champions Trophy is set to return after a hiatus of nearly eight years, with the ninth edition set to get underway in six days’ time in Karachi. The squads for the 'Mini World Cup' are also locked in with the ICC’s deadline for making changes to provisional squads having expired on Tuesday, 11 February.
Several teams have made changes since announcing their provisional squads last month. India were dealt a massive blow after senior pacer Jasprit Bumrah was ruled out due to a back injury, and was replaced by Harshit Rana. Additionally, mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy was included in the squad in place of Yashasvi Jaiswal, who has been relegated to the non-travelling reserves.
Then again, teams such as hosts and defending champions Pakistan have opted to retain their provisional squad for the Champions Trophy despite the selectors facing criticism for the composition of their XV.
Australia, however, have raised eyebrows across the cricketing world with the number of players who have been ruled out of the upcoming tournament. The reigning ODI world champions – who had won consecutive editions of the Champions Trophy in 2006 and 2009 – are going through something of a crisis with five players named in their provisional squad getting ruled out.
Are security concerns to blame for Australia’s Champions Trophy pull-outs?
The Aussies will be without the backbone of their bowling unit – the iconic pace trio of skipper Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, who had starred in the team’s triumph in the 2023 ICC World Cup in India. Cummins’ absence means Steve Smith will be leading the Aussies in an ICC event for the first time since the 2017 Champions Trophy.
They will also be without seam-bowling all-rounders Mitchell Marsh and Marcus Stoinis, the latter abruptly announcing his retirement from ODIs after being named in Australia's provisional squad exactly a month ago.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsA couple of changes like India wouldn’t really send the rumour mills into an overdrive although the Indian cricket community can’t help but discuss the impact of Bumrah's absence on the Men in Blue’s chances of winning a second ICC event in as many years.
But for a team to miss five players named in the original squad, three of whom form the core of the bowling department – certainly would make experts as well as fans wonder if it’s just injuries that has led to such sweeping changes.
Some might even speculate that it’s due to security concerns arising from the fact that the tournament will be taking place in Pakistan – a nation that had become a no-go zone in international cricket after the terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team in 2009 .
However, only one team has been vocal about refusing to Pakistan due to security and political concerns. India had refused to visit Pakistan for the Asia Cup in 2023, resulting in the tournament taking place in a ‘Hybrid Model’.
The BCCI took a similar stance for the upcoming tournament, resulting in India’s games being moved to Dubai, United Arab Emirates although unlike the Asia Cup, Pakistan will get to host a sizeable chunk of matches including at least one semi-final in the Champions Trophy.
New Zealand Cricket had sent a delegation to Pakistan in December to inspect security arrangements for the ODI triangular series that is currently underway, and have expressed no concerns since their arrival in Lahore earlier this month.
Australia, meanwhile, have made no such statement when it comes to concerns over playing in Pakistan. Let’s not forget the fact that they had toured Pakistan for three Tests, as many ODIs and one T20I in 2022 – visiting the South Asian nation after a gap of 24 years.
Their visit three years ago had gone off without a hitch, and on top of that, the Aussies ended up winning the Test series 1-0 as well as one-off T20I.
Workload management and decline of ODIs to blame?
If anything, Australia’s decision to rest some of their key players could be due to workload issues. Keep in mind three of those players are front-line quicks who are integral to their plans for the home summer, especially in the Test format.
And while Hazlewood’s participation in the recently-concluded Border-Gavaskar Trophy had been cut short due to injury, Cummins and Starc had played important roles in the 3-1 series triumph over India .
With Australia set to host the Ashes later this year, the Australian selectors will be a lot more careful about the workloads of their injury-prone pacers.
And given the decline in interest in the 50-over game as well as the fact that the upcoming tournament isn’t exactly the prestigious ICC World Cup, the aforementioned players might just have decided not to risk putting their bodies on the line at the moment.
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