Pakistan lost the wickets of Babar Azam and Imam-ul-Haq during a highly intense match of the Champions Trophy 2025 against India on February 23.
Aiming for a solid start, Babar Azam and Imam-ul-Haq had a decent start before Hardik Pandya picked the wicket of the former for 23 runs.
During the 9th over of the match, Babar pushes at it thinking the cover drive was on, and gets an edge that KL Rahul pouches by getting low to his right.
In the very next over, Axar Patel picked the wicket of Imam-ul-Haq on a run out. Taking off for the single Axar charges in and hits the stumps directly.
Accuracy 🔥
Axar Patel with a direct hit to earn the second wicket for #TeamIndia 👏 🎯
Updates ▶️ https://t.co/llR6bWz3Pl#PAKvIND | #ChampionsTrophy | @akshar2026 pic.twitter.com/cHb0iS2kaQ
— BCCI (@BCCI) February 23, 2025
Mohammed Shami leaves the field as he felt discomfort during the third over of the match against Pakistan.
Earlier Pakistan won the toss and opted to bat first. Speaking at the toss, Mohammad Rizwan said, “Will bat first, looks like a good surface. Want to put up a good target. Every match is important in ICC events, we will keep things normal.”
“The boys are familiar with these conditions, we have done well here and we want to do our best today. We lost our last game, but it is past for us now. One change – Fakhar is out, Imam is in.”
Meanwhile Rohit Sharma said, “Doesn’t really matter, they won the toss so we’ll bowl first. Looks similar to the last game, the surface is on the slower side. We have an experienced unit in batting so we know what we need to do if the pitches get slower.”
“Need an overall performance from the team – with bat and ball. The last game wasn’t an easy one for us, which is always nice. You want to be under pressure and test yourself. We are playing the same team.”
Pakistan Playing 11: Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam, Saud Shakeel, Mohammad Rizwan(w/c), Salman Agha, Tayyab Tahir, Khushdil Shah, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, Abrar Ahmed
India Playing 11: Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, KL Rahul(w), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Harshit Rana, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav
