India will not be travelling to Pakistan for the upcoming Champions Trophy, the cricket tournament that will be held in the coming year. The Indian Cricket Board (BCCI) has communicated their opinion to PCB that, owing to security reasons, their games in the Champions Trophy are to be shifted somewhere outside Pakistan, with the most likely venue being Dubai.
“This has been our stance, and there is no reason to change that. We have written to them and asked them to shift our games to Dubai,” a source in the know said.
The Champions Trophy is being held for the first time since 2017, the edition which was won by the Pakistan cricket team. The top 8 ranked teams in the ICC will participate in the Champions Trophy, which will possibly be scheduled to be held on the 19th of February.
The ICC has confirmed PCB’s location of Karachi, Lahore, and Rawalpindi as the host grounds. Just like last year’s Asia Cup, when India moved their matches out of Pakistan to Sri Lanka, they stood firm on their stand over not playing the Champions Trophy in Pakistan.
Some hopes stirred over India’s participation when India’s external affairs minister S Jaishankar was seen engaging in a conversation with Pakistan’s foreign minister Muhammad Ishaq Dar on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting.
Under diplomatic corridors, the PCB chairman was kept in the loop, as whispers of India travelling to Pakistan were heard. Even the PCB gave the Indian board the option of their team coming back to India after every game; however, nothing seemed to have worked for the two teams.
The Indian team will travel early to Australia to prepare for the BGT
The Indian team will be travelling to Australia in 2 days, as they will remain in Australia to feature in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and get their players adapted to the Australian tracks.
As per reports, Indian skipper Rohit Sharma will not travel to Australia for the first two tests, as he might be absent owing to family reasons. Jasprit Bumrah might be seen in the role of Indian skipper in his absence, while also likes of Abhimanyu Easwaran or KL Rahul might be seen featuring as the Indian opener in the absence of the opening batter Rohit.
