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The Champions Trophy hosted by Pakistan will officially begin on Wednesday with a match between hosts Pakistan and New Zealand at the National Stadium in Karachi.
The England team has also arrived in Lahore early Tuesday morning to participate in the event, while the teams of Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Afghanistan are already in Pakistan.
India is also included in this eight-team event, which will play all its matches in Dubai. The Indian cricket team has reached Dubai, where it will play its first match against Bangladesh on Thursday.
Hundreds of security personnel will be deployed for the opening match of the event in Karachi and only those who have tickets will be allowed to enter the ground.
The Pakistan and New Zealand teams have practiced extensively for the opening match.
Pakistan’s 15-member squad, led by Mohammad Rizwan, consists of Fakhar Zaman, Babar Azam, Saud Shakeel, Kamran Ghulam, vice-captain Salman Ali Agha, Tayyab Tahir, Usman Khan, Faheem Ashraf, Khushdil Shah, Abrar Ahmed, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf, Naseem Shah and Mohammad Hasnain.
New Zealand have suffered a second major setback ahead of the opening match of the event. Fast bowler Lockie Ferguson has been ruled out of the Champions Trophy due to a foot injury.
Earlier, New Zealand had to make changes to their 15-man squad when fast bowler Ben Sear suffered a muscle strain.
The event, hosted by Pakistan, will be played in Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi, while Dubai will host India’s matches as a neutral venue.
All eight teams participating in the event have been divided into two groups. Group ‘A’ includes Pakistan, India, New Zealand and Bangladesh teams, while Group ‘B’ consists of Australia, England, South Africa and Afghanistan teams.
Two teams from each group will qualify for the semi-finals. The first semi-final will be played on March 4 and the second on March 5.
If India does not reach the final, the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore will host the Champions Trophy final. Otherwise, the final will be played in Dubai.
Before the ICC Champions Trophy, Pakistan last hosted the 1996 ICC World Cup, which was jointly played in Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka.
On March 17, 1996, when the final between Australia and Sri Lanka was played at the Gaddafi Stadium, businessman Haji Abdul Razzaq was a supporter of the victorious Sri Lankan team.
Recalling hosting the World Cup in Pakistan, 77-year-old Abdul Razzaq says that the time is still fresh in his mind when Pakistan was making progress in sports and cricket was on everyone’s mind.
Twenty-nine years later, Abdul Razzaq is now supporting the Pakistan team in the Champions Trophy and says that hosting the world championship in Pakistan is like an anniversary for him.
It should be noted that the doors of international cricket were closed to Pakistan for many years after the terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team in Lahore in 2009.
After the crackdown on terrorists in 2014, the security situation in the country began to improve and then Test cricket was restored in Pakistan in 2019. Later, teams like Australia, England, New Zealand and South Africa also visited Pakistan.
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