The Champions Trophy: And then there were five left Preview

We are one week and halfway into the Champions Trophy and seen three teams being eliminated after two rounds of matches.

The official hosts Pakistan just were unable to overcome the pressure of a home tournament. They crumbled rather meekly against a very efficient and impressive New Zealand and then just were not able to challenge India.

Bangladesh predictably capitulated by ceding significant ground in the first quarter of both games, and even though they tried hard there were simply unable to match either India or New Zealand.

Clearly India and New Zealand have laid down markers as the teams to beat in this tournament. Then again their first challenge is when they play each other over the coming weekend.

England was part of the two best games in the tournament so far, but just slip their advantage again and again and ended up being the third team to be eliminated. In 2025, the English cricket teams (men and women) have a combined record of 1-16 !

Australia, South Africa and Afghanistan will be battling for the two semi-final slots from group B.

In this conversation we will take a look at the 8 games that have been played and discuss what we liked and did not from each time.

During the chat we touch upon the following questions -

• Does England require a major overhaul of their white ball setup ?
• What happened to Pakistan ?
• How good can New Zealand be ?
• Can India ward off New Zealand ?
• Does Australia have it in them ?

#TeamIndia #Australia #England #SouthAfrica #Pakistan #NewZealand #ChampionsTrophy #2025CT #ICC #BCCI

Participants:

• Vasant Kumar
• Ramakrishnan G Iyer
• Anand Kumar Sankaran
• Vijaykumar Balasubramanian

Also available on Apple Podcast and Spotify.

https://all-out-for-no-loss.captivate.fm/episode/champions-trophy-2025-the-halfway-point