On Sunday, February 23, India and Pakistan will play each other in Match 5 of the Champions Trophy 2025 at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. In the tournament’s history, the two teams will face off six times in the highly awaited match.
At the National Stadium, New Zealand easily defeated Pakistan by 60 runs in the tournament’s opening match. In contrast, India defeated Bangladesh by six wickets in Dubai. Speaking of recent ODI form, Pakistan is coming off a defeat in the just concluded Tri-Nation Series final into the prestigious ODI event.
India, meanwhile, is coming off a thrashing that they inflicted on England, defeating them 3-0 at home.
Regarding the location where the combat will take place, dew could always play a role in the second half of the match. Its occurrence cannot be entirely ignored, even though it did not appear during the second innings of the India-Bangladesh match. It is anticipated that both teams would bowl first after winning the toss because of this and the fact that batting on the pitch became much simpler under the lights.
- Scenario 1: India win the toss and opt to bowl first
Pakistan are generally considered as a better bat-first team than a chasing unit. However, in the case of batting first, they would have to display caution while facing the new-ball duo of Mohammed Shami and Harshit Rana, both of who landed the ball in the correct channels against Bangladesh. The Pakistani unit would also be expected to rotate the strike during the middle phase of the innings. Considering the form most of the Indian batters are in, Pakistan would want to put an above-par total on the board.
- Scenario 2: Pakistan win the toss and opt to bowl first
In this case, it will be interesting to see how the Indian openers approach the powerplay. With the pitch acting a bit double-paced in the previous game in Dubai, the top-order batters might just take it a bit easy in the first 10 odd overs of the game. With Abrar Ahmed being the sole spinner, his spell would be expected to play a vital role for Pakistan. Pakistan have been quite underwhelming with their death bowling of late. India might want to make the most of anything loose to put up a sizeable total on the board.
Who will win the toss today?
Going by the previous five instances of India and Pakistan taking on each other in the Champions Trophy, there is a higher probability which suggests that Pakistan will win the toss.
India
