New Zealand star all-rounder Rachin Ravindra picked finalists in the upcoming Champions Trophy 2025 which is scheduled to start from February 19. Champions Trophy aka the mini World Cup, is making a comeback after eight years and the matches of the showpiece event will be played in Pakistan and Dubai.
Rachin was the star performer for New Zealand in ODI World Cup 2023 which was hosted by India. He scored more than 500 runs to guide his team into the semifinals. The star all-rounder Rachin has played 28 ODIs where he scored 945 runs and picked up 18 wickets will now be seen featuring for the BlackCaps in the Champions Trophy.
Ahead of Champions Trophy 2025, Rachin, in a video shared by ICC on Instagram, has shared his excitement to play for the Kiwis in the Champions Trophy. “I think it’s amazing. Obviously, having a brief hiatus from the Champions Trophy and it coming back this year is very exciting. I think the format is amazing, being able to essentially play knockout games every single time. There’s context on every single game, which I think is super exciting and something I’m looking forward to."
“You always play cricket to try and push yourselves and try and win the game, so for every game to have that onus on it is great," he added.
The young all-rounder was asked to predict the finalists of the Champions Trophy where he picked New Zealand and Australia ignoring world No. 1 ODI team India and tournament's hosts Pakistan.
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“It’s always very hard to predict (finalists) that because you always want to say New Zealand because you’re involved. So hopefully we’re there. I mean, we’ll take it game by game, and the other groups, it’s pretty hard to count out people like Australia. I think they’re a really good team, and they’ve shown how strong they are in all formats. Current holders of the ODI World Cup too. So hopefully it’ll be a Trans-Tasman derby. But, we’ll take it game by game and see what happens."
New Zealand will face Pakistan in the tournament opener on February 19 at the National Stadium in Karachi before taking on Bangladesh in Rawalpindi on February 24 and India in the last Group A match on March 2 in Dubai.