Hyderabad: The Pakistan cricket team's challenge in the Champions Trophy 2025 came to an end with New Zealand's comfortable 5-wicket win over Bangladesh at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium on Monday, February 25. With two wins each, India and New Zealand have qualified for the semi-finals while defending champions and the co-hosts Pakistan and Bangladesh have been eliminated from the tournament with two losses.
However, Pakistan were hit with multiple injuries before the Champions Trophy as their in-form opener was ruled out of the tournament due to injury. Fakhar Zaman joined the side as his replacement, but his comeback was cut short after he got injured on the very second ball of the Champions Trophy opener clash between Pakistan and New Zealand in Karachi and was subsequently ruled out of the tournament.
The bowling attack also lacked bite in them as Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah were ineffective and kept leaking runs while Haris Rauf couldn't support them as well. The lack of specialist spinners to support Abrar Ahmed was also another reason for Pakistan's poor show.
The exit from the tournament on Monday means that Pakistan set a couple of unwanted records. Firstly, this was the first time since 2009 that the host nation didn't make it out of the group stages of the Champions Trophy. The last time this happened when South Africa won one match and lost 2 matches to finish at the bottom of their group.
Pakistan set a couple of unwanted records
Pakistan getting knocked out of the tournament marked the first time since 2009 that the host nation didn't make it out of the group stages of the Champions Trophy, with such last instance came when South Africa finished at the bottom of the table after managing only one win in out of three group stage games.
Rizwan & Co. also became the fourth team to enter the Champions Trophy as defending champions and exit in the group stages, with the first occasion coming in 2004 when India and Sri Lanka were eliminated from the group stages. India and Sri Lanka were the joint-winners in 2002.
The last time this happened was in 2013 when defending champions Australia failed to win any match and exited in the group stages. Pakistan will be playing their final match against Bangladesh on February 27. However, there is a big rain threat looming over the match, which mean that Pakistan could end the tournament without a win in the end.
