World Cup-winning captain picks semifinalists for 2025 Champions Trophy; leaves out Pakistan

Former Australia captain Steve Waugh has acknowledged the difficulty in picking the four semifinalists for the 2025 Champions Trophy, considering the strengths of all the participating teams. However, he went with India and New Zealand from Group A and Australia and England from Group B.

India and Australia are the only multi-time winners of the Champions Trophy, with the former winning in 2002 and 2013 and the latter in 2006 and 2009. Meanwhile, New Zealand won the second edition of the Champions Trophy in 2000 and England are still searching for their elusive title.

When asked to pick his semifinalists during an interview with TOI, Waugh said:

"It’s unpredictable. Obviously, India, in those conditions. New Zealand have got a very strong squad. I would never underestimate Australia. Then there’s England. Honestly, it's hard to pick the top floor and you can’t write off the rest."

Waugh's prediction of India and New Zealand going through to the semifinals from Group A is on track after both teams won their respective opening games of the 2025 Champions Trophy. While the Men in Blue scraped through to a six-wicket victory over Bangladesh, the Kiwis pulled off a 60-run win over co-hosts Pakistan in the tournament opener.

As for Group B, South Africa made a strong start to their campaign with a resounding 107-run win over Afghanistan. The other two teams in the group - Australia and England, will face each other in Lahore today (February 22).

"Everyone doubts One-Day cricket until you have a major tournament" - Steve Waugh

Steve Waugh dismissed the notion of ODI cricket dying in the wake of the T20 and Test formats. The opening few matches of the ongoing 2025 Champions Trophy have witnessed only sparse crowds at the stadiums, much to the surprise of everyone concerned.

"Everyone doubts One-Day cricket until you have a major tournament, and then you realize you really like ODIs and they’re exciting. It looks like a long form again when you stack it up against T20. Now it’s almost seen as a boring format, but every time we have a World Cup, people fall in love with ODIs again," Waugh said in the same interview.

He added:

"I think the (big ODI) tournaments are going to be important and mean something. So, the Champions Trophy, while it’s not as high profile as the World Cup, is important for players. It’s going to be increasingly hard in the future to fit all formats into the game."

The competition should heat up with a full house on offer when India take on Pakistan in Dubai on Sunday (February 23).