KARACHI: Positive signals are coming from across the border regarding the participation in the Champions Trophy, Secretary Indian Cricket Board Jai Shah declared the next ODI event and Test Championship as the team’s target after the T20 World Cup.
According to the details, at the end of the ICCT 20 World Cup jointly hosted by the USA and the West Indies, the eyes are now focused on the next mega event, the Champions Trophy, which will be played in Pakistan next year in the ODI format.
The Pakistan Cricket Board has sent its proposed schedule to the ICC, according to which the start will be on February 19 and the deciding match will be on March 9.
There were doubts about India’s participation in the tournament. Last year, BCCI had refused to send the team to Pakistan for the Asia Cup. He made his team dizzy.
Now, after the victory in the T20 World Cup, the possibility of the Indian team coming to Pakistan is increasing. In this regard, a statement by the Secretary of the Cricket Board, Jay Shah, has also come out in which he has mentioned the Champions Trophy and the Test Championship titles as his team’s next goals. Although they have not talked about sending the team to Pakistan at present, the PCB has a firm position this time that it will host the Champions Trophy in its own country in any case.
It has also been proposed to hold all the matches of India only in one city, Lahore. Regarding the T20 victory, Jay Shah said that as our team is improving, our next target is the World Test Championship final and Champions Trophy, in which our same squad will participate, it will include senior players.
He was referring to Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, who have retired from the T20 International format but will continue to play ODI and Test cricket, thus both can be seen in action during the Champions Trophy in Pakistan.
Jay Shah added that he was the captain in the final of the Test Championship last year as well, we reached there by winning all the matches but in the final the Australian team played better, so we lost, this time our team performed much better. Hard work, experience matters, you can’t have too many experiences in a world cup, a good player knows when to leave the game.
You look at Rohit Sharma’s strike rate, he is better than many young players, I want India to win all the titles together, we have a huge bench power right now, guess what, next tour to Zimbabwe. Only 3 players from this team will go, if needed we can field 3 teams at the same time.
On the other hand, the preparations for hosting the Champions Trophy in Pakistan are going on rapidly, the pitch consultant and security experts of ICC have also reviewed the host venues, the upgrade work is going on in the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, the main building has been demolished. Granted, it will be rebuilt, the venue is being prepared to host major events, experts are hopeful that the Indian team will come and play in Pakistan, BCCI has officially confirmed its participation in the event. So all the matches will be played in Lahore.
