 "Champions Trophy 2025: Rohit downplays India-Pakistan clash on 23 February, says it's 'just a game for us'")
India enjoy a dominant record against Pakistan when it comes to World Cups – winning all 8 ODI World Cup encounters and seven of their eight T20 World Cup meetings, their only loss coming in Dubai in 2021. However, when it comes to the ICC Champions Trophy, Pakistan remain ahead of their arch-rivals by the barest of margins, leading 3-2 in five meetings.
Captain Rohit Sharma, however, isn’t worried about India’s negative head-to-head record against Pakistan in the ‘Mini World Cup’, and maintains that his team will be aiming to “show up well” on 23 February – the day the two neighbours lock horns at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium .
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“I think in the past two or three years, I’ve spoken a lot about that (India vs Pakistan) game. It’s just a game for us. We will try and do what is required for any cricket team to do on that particular day. We just want to show up there and show up well,” Rohit said at the BCCI’s Naman Awards ceremony in Mumbai on Saturday.
Pakistan had won the group-stage encounters in 2004 and 2009, while India drew level with lopsided wins, also in the group stage, in 2013 and 2017.
Pakistan, however, had won the latest of those five encounters, with Sarfaraz Ahmed’s men thrashing the Virat Kohli-led Indian team by 180 runs in the final of the 2017 edition at The Oval to win their third global event after the 1992 World Cup and the 2009 T20 World Cup.
India head coach Gautam Gambhir, meanwhile, added that the team’s focus won’t be on just one match, but on winning a second ICC event in as many years.
Impact Shorts
More Shorts“Look, we do not go to the Champions Trophy thinking that the 23rd is the most important game for us. I think five games, all the games are important,” Gambhir told Star Sports.
“The mission to go to Dubai is to win the Champions Trophy, not only win one particular game. But yes, if that is one game in the middle of winning the Champions Trophy, we are going to try and take it as seriously as possible. And more importantly, I think when two countries, India and Pakistan, play against each other, obviously the emotions are really high, but ultimately the contest remains the same,” the former India opener added.
Also Read | Full squads of all eight teams participating in 2025 ICC Champions Trophy
After a semi-final exit in the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia and finishing runners-up in the ICC World Cup at home in 2023 – despite being the most dominant team in the build-up to the final against Australia – the Men in Blue had ended their 11-year ICC trophy drought by winning the T20 World Cup in the US and the Caribbean in June.
With the Champions Trophy returning after an eight-year hiatus, India will be hoping to win the event for a third time after sharing the trophy with Sri Lanka in 2002 and beating England in the final of the 2013 edition.
While the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy was originally scheduled to be hosted entirely in Pakistan, India's matches were moved to Dubai after the BCCI refused to send the Men in Blue to their neighbouring country citing security concerns as well as political tensions.
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