ICC champions trophy: Forecasts of Nasser Hussain and Michael Atherton, including how England will do | Cricket news

Nasser Hussain and Michael Atherton share their forecasts for the ICC Champions Trophy, which is live Heavenly from February 19 to March 9.

Heavenly sports Name their favorites in the tournaments, how they expect England to do and choose the players they look forward to seeing in the next few weeks.

Every game is live in Heavenly With England – seeking to withdraw from a tour -loaded tour in India – in front of a depleted team in Australia in their first match in Lahore on Saturday 22 February.

Winner

Nasser Hussain: I did something for ICC about six weeks ago and I had Australia as my favorites, but I brought five players from that team – Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Marcus Stoinis – and this is a serious loss.

They are back in the little package and I now have INDIA As the team to defeat, though they are probably without the best player on the planet now on Jasprit Bumrah.

If you look at their drum stocks and the rotation department, the way they played against England recently and the way they generally play in bilateral crickets, they look strong.

They play all their games in Dubai, know the conditions and will not have to travel. On paper, they are the best side now.

Michael Atherton: As Nasser, I think INDIA Being based on Dubai will help them massively.

Spin looks like it will be a really strong point of their game in the absence of Bumrah – I’m also not sure Pakistan.

But you also look at their strength in depth. If they could leave out a player like Yashasvi Jaiswal, who would probably get to another team in the world, it shows how much talent they have.

Saying this, some of their attackers have not been precisely shooting at all cylinders – Virat Kohli and, up to one hundred against England, Rohit Sharma. But they have just beat England 3-0 and if you look at their record in the last two years they have been very strong.

For me, they start as the visible favorites, but maybe New Zealand have a stretch to challenge them. They have played a lot of cricket in Pakistan and are passing in good shape, while they have a lot of fire strength and experience and a very smart rotor in Captain Mitchell Santner.

I love South Africa too. When they get their best team – which they have not always been able to do – they are quite scary.

How will England do?

Nasser: I think England will be a little stuck from the tour in India but not only that. They have not been excellent in white ball crickets since winning the 2022 T20 World Cup.

At that stage, they held both World Cup titles at the same time, but now they have lost both of them and have been beaten in their last bilateral ODI series.

However, I think they will be drawn to being in Pakistan as the wickets there are generally flat and that fit their game style.

It is a place where you need the attackers going tightly, a hand roller – and they have one of the best in Adil Rashid – and speed with the ball through the air. Their attack on the rhythm can be useful, though it is not about rhythm, it is also about skills.

They just have to make sure they go bigger with the stick. The sides that win games score hundreds of large – Travis Head to Australia in the World Cup final, Shubman Gill and Rohi for India against England recently. The sixties are good, but don’t win games.

If you go out after the Powerplay, you expose your medium order to rotate, so the likes of Ben Docket, Joe Root and Tom Banton should be inserted.

I think someone like Harry Brook, who had a difficult tour in India, will be pleased to be in Pakistan. He plays in the PSL for Lahore, where England play their first two matches, and has loving memories of trial crickets in the country, so it can be the elevator he needs.

The injury crisis for Australia helps England’s attempt to get out of the group. This first game is an opportunity now and if they can win it, then it increases confidence and they will see India’s tour as little.

If they lose it, they have Afghanistan – who have excellent spinners and attackers – and South Africa, who they lost in the 2023 World Cup, then it becomes difficult.

If England plays with their potential, which they have not done for a while, then I think they can get out of the group. But I’m not sure they can win it, though the brief nature of this tour means that everyone is a contender.

Atheers: I think England will fight to get out of their group. Australia game now seems much more winning than they could have done with all their injuries, but South African and African matches are really difficult.

A good result for England would be to reach the semifinals given the way they played and the latest results, but I’m not so sure.

It will be a high score competition in Pakistan in good fields – in the last triangular series between Pakistan, New Zealand and South Africa, most of the results were over 300.

You need players to make hundreds and England have not done it late, while many players who have hit centuries for them are no longer involved, including Dawid Malan.

They did not choose the rotation in India well, though this may have fewer consequences in Pakistan, and their Bowling has seemed a little one-dimensional sometimes, so they will do well to get out of the group.

The leader of the winner and the main scorer?

Mother: I am saying that India will win it and therefore will play games on Arshdeep Singh as the main wicket holder. He has played only nine ODI so far, but is India’s highest international wicket T20 and can bowl at the beginning and end of a start.

For the scorer, I will say Gills. Rohit loves the champions trophy and ICC events in general, but Gill is in the form of his life in this format.

Rohi’s shape is reduced to the Cricket of late test against New Zealand and Australia, reaching its peak, leaving itself out of this format during the winter.

I almost feel that it was as if he went up to his mountain to be honest. Within a year, he lost a 50-bunch World Cup final and then won a World Cup final from a loser position.

The ups and downs of being a player and the captain of India probably took his number and touched his game in the red ball cricket, but not the white ball cricket and he looks somewhere again at his best, adding the strength of India.

Atheers: I will go to South Africa Heinrich Klassi As the main scorer of the management as he is in hot shape. Maybe you have to go for a step or someone in the first three, but he is a short -level short -shaped player and should get a lot of opportunities.

For the wicker holder I would say England’s foot roller Adil Rashid, who is really a master of his craft now, but while I have my doubts about them making the semifinal, I will go to India of India Kuldeep Yadav.

I like to watch the bowl. He is a truly highly diversity attacking rotary and is playing in a part of the world that will help to rotate more.

And another player you are expecting to see?

Nasser: Pakistan Fakhar Zaman. I think he could turn on the tournament.

I haven’t seen him for a while after he has been inside and outside them, but he scored a hundred excellent in the 2017 champions trophy final against India in Oval

He is a dynamic creator shot at the top of the order, perhaps someone whose side is really lost late, and since he is back, he has received some runs.

Pakistan has been waiting for a global ICC event for the first time since 1996 and this is a great thing for them. If the team is going to play well, I think fakhar may have to take them on a flying. Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan can then play around him.

Atheers: I would say Gills for India.

He is a very stylish player at the top of the order and, as Nass says, is in great shape, scoring over 250 runs in that ODI series against England with two fifty and then one hundred in the last game.

For Pakistan, waiting for their first Global ICC event in almost 30 years, a safe and successful tour will illuminate a light on international crickets in the country after a long absence.

There is a great passion for the game there and is a massive opportunity for Pakistan.

ICC champions trophy program

All games 9am in the UK and Ireland

Group a

• February 19: Pakistan Vs New Zealand (Karachi)
• February 20: Bangladesh vs India (Dubai)
• February 23: Pakistan vs India (Dubai)
• February 24: Bangladesh Vs New Zealand (Rawalpindi)
• February 27: Pakistan vs Bangladesh (Rawalpindi)
• March 2: New Zealand Vs India (Dubai)

Group b

• February 21: Afghanistan vs. South Africa (Karachi)
• February 22: Australia vs England (Lahore)
• February 25: Australia VS South Africa (Rawalpindi)
• February 26: Afghanistan vs England (Lahore)
• February 28: Afghanistan vs Australia (Lahore)
• March 1: South Africa vs England (Karachi)

semis

• March 4: Semifinals (Dubai)
• March 5: Semifinals 2 (lahore)

Final

• March 9: Final (Lahore or Dubai)

Look at every match from the ICC champions trophy in 2025 live at Sky Sports between February 19 and March 9 or now.

Daniel Dubois vs Joseph Parker and Artur Beterbiev vs Dmitry Bivol Rematch will be live on Saturday 22 February in Sky arce office. Reserve now!