Sarfaraz Ahmed: Winning this trophy in 2017 was my career highlight - now Pakistan are ready to put on a show once more
The players are ready, the fans are ready and Pakistan is ready for an occasion 29 years in the making – the ICC Men’s Champions Trophy 2025.
When Pakistan play New Zealand in Karachi next week, it will mark the first senior ICC event held in my homeland since 1996 and to say we are bursting with excitement would be an understatement.
Karachi is a fitting host for the opening game and it will kick-start three weeks of brilliant cricket in a tournament that changed my life. Winning this trophy in 2017 was the best day of my cricket career. Although it is eight years ago now, every June when the anniversary comes round, I see videos on social media and it gives me goosebumps.
Pakistan have a really good chance of defending that title and I think they have a strong team. Some of the boys from 2017 are still there and we’re talking about some of the best – especially Babar Azam.
He is a different Babar to the one that played in 2017, a more mature player and a dominant player in the game. His batting will be so important for Pakistan and so will Fakhar Zaman’s.
With the ball, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Haris Rauf are brilliant bowlers and are playing well. The captain, Mohammad Rizwan, is also a wicketkeeper-batter, which worked pretty well for me back in 2017!
There will be pressure. Pakistan being at home, being the defending champions, there will be high expectations, but the fans will get behind them.
It is a stacked field, of course, every team can win it. I think Afghanistan have a really strong team, Australia and India as well. Their spin options are so good and you will need that to succeed in these conditions.
If I had to pick four semi-finalists, I’d probably go for Pakistan, India, Australia and Afghanistan at this stage, but I would not rule anyone out.
Of the pool matches, everyone will be talking about Pakistan’s match against India, and the game will be huge.
Whenever we meet, it is a special occasion and there is so much hype and pressure around it. But as players, you need to stay calm, try and block that noise out and just play with the same intensity as you would play Australia or any other team.
In 2017, we played India in our first match and were soundly beaten by 124 runs. It was my first game as captain and we were poor in all areas. Afterwards, we had a great team meeting, and some of our senior guys – Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Hafeez – all said their piece. You need those types of characters around you.
We changed our mindset from that day. The acrimony was very good for us, we made a couple of changes to the team and it helped our confidence. We beat South Africa and became unstoppable.
Our head coach, Mickey Arthur, and I were so confident we would do well. We had come through a really tricky series against the West Indies, which was key for 2019 World Cup qualification, and were the bottom-ranked side in the tournament. We felt we had nothing to lose and so took as much pressure as we could away from the players.
We played England in the semi-finals and our bowlers were just superb. Then, it was India in the final.
I was just confident our level was very high and my message to the players ahead of the final was to relax. We knew we had beaten some of the best teams, so India was nothing we had not seen. I told the guys to relax, forget the result and just give 100%. The rest is history.
When the last wicket went down and we won, it is impossible to describe that feeling in words. When I took the last catch, I was at gully. And I just ran. I saw Shoaib Malik and ran into his arms, I jumped into him and hugged him. The whole team then joined in. It was indescribable.
Whenever I know the date June 18 is coming, I see it online – that catch, that ball, that moment. Hasan Ali bowled the bouncer to Jasprit Bumrah, I took the catch. Amazing.
When I reached Karachi the next night, it was only 30 minutes before fasting time. I had my child and wife with me and there were people everywhere, inside the airport, outside the airport, there were local politicians, Pakistan Cricket staff and fans.
When I got home, there were thousands of people in the street. It took me ages to meet and greet everyone, and then I took the trophy up onto my balcony and held it up for the people to see. They were cheering and celebrating – it was amazing, amazing, amazing.
That is the power of an ICC tournament. And I can’t wait to see who will follow in our footsteps.
