The ICC Champions Trophy will make a comeback after a gap of 8 years in 2025. The International Cricket Council (ICC) announced the qualification process for the 2025 Champions Trophy in October 2023 during the ODI World Cup.
Here, in this article, let’s take a look at the qualification process and format of the 2025 Champions Trophy.
2025 Champions Trophy Qualification
The ICC Champions Trophy is a 50-over tournament where the top 8 teams from around the world compete to get their hands on the coveted trophy.
The tournament last happened in 2017, and it was discontinued after that edition. But the ICC reinstated the competition in November 2021, with the 2025 Champions Trophy to be held in Pakistan.
For the 2017 edition, the top 8 teams in the ODI rankings qualified for the event. However, for the 2025 edition, the ICC came up with a new qualification process.
Also Read | How are the ICC Rankings Calculated?
So, what’s the qualification system?
The ICC announced that the top 7 teams in the 2023 ODI World Cup points table and Pakistan (the hosts) will qualify for the 2025 Champions Trophy. If Pakistan finishes in the top 7, then the top 8 teams in the table will book their places in the tournament.
So instead of the ODI rankings, the teams will be decided based on their points table position.
This means that other full-member teams — the West Indies, Zimbabwe, and Ireland — that didn’t qualify for the 2023 World Cup have already been knocked out of contention.
Also Read | Why is Cricket in the West Indies on the Decline?
Format
The format of the 2025 Champions Trophy is similar to that of the 2017 edition. The tournament will feature 2 groups of 4 teams each. Each team will play against their group members in a single round-robin format.
At the end of the group stage, the top 2 sides from each group will proceed to the semifinals. Then the winners of the semifinals will clash in the final.
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