England faces Afghanistan in a Must win game for both: The ICC Champions Trophy 2025

 

    File: Rehmat Shah and Adil Rashid credit-ICC

Overview

England and Afghanistan will face each other in the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 8th match on February 26, 2025. The match will be played at The Gaddafi Stadium Lahore. It will be a day and night game. 

As Today's game between Australia and South Africa is washed out at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium so tomorrow's game between Afghanistan and England is a must-win game for both teams. The loser of this match will be eliminated from the ICC Champions Trophy 2025. Both teams are coming into this match after losing their 1st match of the tournament. So, we are expecting a cracker of a game tomorrow as both teams are expected to go all in all for this do-or-die game. England batted beautifully as they scored 351 in their 1st match against Australia but their bowling was not up to the mark as a result Australia chased down the target easily. Whereas Afghanistan's main strength is spin bowling they were not up to mark in their 1st game against South Africa with both bat and ball. They will have to ball and bat much better if they want to challenge a strong English team.

In this article, we will discuss the squads and key players, head-to-head and recent performances, pitch and conditions, and Match predictions.

Team News

England's Brydon is unfit and ruled out of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025. ECB has earlier announced that Rehan Ahmed is his replacement in the squad and Jamie Overton will play in the playing 11. Afghanistan is expected to field the same playing 11 that was used for the 1st ODI against South Africa in the ICC Champions Trophy 2025. 

Head to Head and recent performances

England and Afghanistan faced each other three times in ODI's where England won twice whereas Afghanistan came out victorious once. The last time when these two teams faced each other Afghanistan caused upset as they beat England 69 runs in ICC ODI World Cup 2023 group match.

If we look at the recent performances we will see that England is coming into this match on a 4 matches losing streak. Afghanistan won the ODI series in Zimbabwe by 2-0 but lost the 1st ODI in the ICC Champions Trophy against South Africa. So, both teams will be looking forward to turning their fortunes in this contest.

    Photo: South African cricket team credit-ICC & TOI

Key Players to watch

England

• Joe Root

Joe Root is one of the best batters in the world right now. He has been in good form recently. England would definitely want their prime batter to produce his best top performance against a quality Afghanistan pin attack. He has done it many many times for the English side across formats and his team needs him to be at his best in the all-important clash.

• Joss Buttler

England Captain Joss Buttler is also a key player for England, His recent performances with the bat are not good enough. He would definitely like to produce his best innings in this important game. He is one of the best hitters in modern-day cricket. We will have to see how he plays the Afghan's spin trio as he struggled a lot against spin in the recently concluded India tour.

• Ben Duckett

England opening batsman Ben Duckett is in sublime form as he has produced the best innings of this career in the last match. England would definitely like him to go big again in the all-important match. His ability to play a sweep, and reverse sweep against spin can be very effective against the Afghanistan spin attack.

    Photo: Joe Root credit-ICC

Afghanistan

• Rashid Khan

Rashid Khan is one of the best spinners in the world right now. He has vast experience of playing cricket all over the world. In the last match, Rashid Khan could create much impact with the ball. So, We are expecting him to be at his best once again in the spin-friendly condition in Rawalpindi.

• Rehman Ullah Gurbaz

Afghanistan wicketkeeper-batter is well known in the cricket world due to his aggressive batting at the top of the order. He was the last ODI he got out cheaply but Afghanistan would definitely like him to go big at the top of the order to set a big total.

    Photo: Rashid Khan credit-ICC

Pitch and conditions

It has been raining heavily in Rawalpindi since last night as a result today's match is already washed out without even a ball bowled. So, for Tomorrow's match also weather is not looking too promising with rain on the radar. But we are expecting the rain will stop and the game will be progressed. The pitch is expected to be batting-friendly and dry with good assistance to spinners. It will be a high-scoring match.

Who will win this match?

England is a batting powerhouse team so they will enter into the contest as favorites but they need to play Afghanistan quality spin much better if they want to win this match. This match will be between Afghanistan spinners and English batters. We will have to wait and see who will come on top this time. 

    Photo: Ben Stokes, Alex Hales, Adil Rashid and Chris Jordan credit-ICC

So, Who will win this very important match? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.