ICC Champions Trophy 2025: Ricky Ponting names his favourites to reach the final

Ricky Ponting has led Australia to two ICC Champions Trophy titles.

The ICC Champions Trophy is set to make its long-awaited return after an eight-year gap. Starting on February 19, the competition will feature eight teams and will be hosted in Pakistan and Dubai.

All the teams have now announced their provisional squads for the competition. The tournament will have eight teams divided into two groups. The top two teams from each group will qualify for the semi-finals.

India is in Group A alongside hosts Pakistan, New Zealand, and Bangladesh. They will begin their campaign on February 20 against Bangladesh, followed by matches against Pakistan and New Zealand, all of which will be held in Dubai.

One key feature of the Champions Trophy is its unpredictability. With eight of the best ODI teams in the world, the tournament presents a scenario even one defeat can risk a team’s elimination.

Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting has now revealed his two favourites for the upcoming Champions Trophy.

Ricky Ponting picks his two contenders to reach the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 final

Speaking to the ICC Review, Ponting identified India and Australia as the two favourites for the competition. He highlighted the quality of both teams and their strong recent performances in big games make them the two top contenders.

Ponting said, “It’s hard to go past India and Australia again, Just think about the quality of players in both countries right now, and you look back in recent history when these big finals and big ICC events have come around, and inevitably Australia and India are there somewhere.“

India and Australia are the only two teams to have won the Champions Trophy twice. Ponting led Australia to back-to-back titles in 2006 and 2009, while India won in 2013 against England and shared the title with Sri Lanka in 2002 after the final was washed out.

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