Some consider the ICC Champions Trophy to be tougher than the World Cup as there is lesser time and chances to recover from setbacks. Once dubbed the 'Mini World Cup', the tournament returns after a gap of seven years. How ready are the eight teams? The Telegraph takes guard with a detailed analysis…

Numbers game

Thanks to T20s, even ODI cricket nowadays is mostly about the power game. So to understand who stands where going into the 2025 Champions Trophy, it is perhaps apt to find out how the teams performed in the last one year (since February 15, 2024) in some key phases of the 50-over game.

GROUP A

India

Can Rohit Sharma clinch his second consecutive ICC trophy following the T20 World Cup triumph last year? That will depend on a lot of issues, most importantly how the batting fares in Dubai. Batting becomes all the more important because India will be missing their best bowler, Jasprit Bumrah. Rohit himself hasn’t been consistent with his batting and how the top order performs will go a long way in deciding India’s fortunes. If Rohit and Virat Kohli can give the innings a headstart, it will make the task of the middle and lower order easier. Like it was in the 2023 ODI World Cup. Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer have shown much promise in the recently-concluded series versus England, though KL Rahul’s batting position remains a matter of debate. Rishabh Pant isn’t in the team management’s plans and if India continue to keep him out of the playing XI, it will lead to a lot of questions. The bowling is considered too heavy on spin, though the conditions are expected to favour the pacers at this time of the year.

Pakistan

Pakistan are the perennial dark horse of world cricket. It’s futile to consider them as the favourites though being the hosts, they should be making maximum use of the familiar conditions. They can implode at any time. But it is also risky to count them out altogether. Even they don t know, which player will suddenly bring out a superlative performance that can inspire the whole team. They are a team who can begin a tournament shabilly and yet walk away with the trophy in the end. Remember the 1992 World Cup? Or even the last time the Champions Trophy was held, in 2017? However, to meet the expectations of their home fans, they will have to first sort out their house. Coached by Aqib Javed at present in an interim capacity after a recent coaching crisis, they must focus only on cricket to get past some tough competition. Captain Mohammad Rizwan has a lot on his hands. Needless to say players like Rizwan, Babar Azam and Shaheen Afridi will have to show the way to the others in their team.

New Zealand

Preparation-wise, Mitchell Santner’s New Zealand should be in good space going into this Champions Trophy having won the recent tri-series in Pakistan. In ICC events, the Black Caps have been quite consistent making the semi-finals on most occasions and are well placed to earn a last-fourth berth in this tournament too. India are the only well-rounded unit in their group, with the other two teams having very few quality players in their ranks. What also bodes well is Kane Williamson’s rich form along with the presence of Daryl Mitchell and Tom Latham, who take care of the middle overs. With a pace attack that can surprise the opposition and pack a punch, spinner-captain Santner s showing of late has been a huge advantage for the Black Caps. They are surely the heavy favourites to lift the trophy.

Bangladesh

Bangladesh are a team in transition, especially since the retirement of veterans like Tamim Iqbal and ShakibAl Hasan. However, it is their young brigade led by Najmul Hossain Shanto which makes them an exciting prospect. They may lack consistency, but on any given day, Bangladesh are capable of pulling off an upset. They made the semi-finals in the previous edition in 2017, but a lot has changed since. Shanto will have senior players like Mahmudullah and Mushfiqur Rahim to fall back on in a crisis. Nahid Rana is considered an exciting new ball prospect along with the experienced Taskin Ahmed and Mustafizur Rahman. Top-order batters Tanzid Hasan and Soumya Sarkar’s form will be crucial.

GROUP B

Australia

It’s tough for one to recall the last time Australia went into an ICC event in such a depleted manner. In this Champions Trophy, their batting does feature Steve Smith (in picture), Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, keeper Alex Carey and Glenn Maxwell, but their bowling doesn’t feature even one of their famed pace trio of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins, all of whom are out injured. Precisely, the only cricketer with some experience in their bowling attack is leg-spinner Adam Zampa. To compound Australia’s problems, all-rounders Mitchell Marsh (injury) and Marcus Stoinis too are unavailable. If that’s not enough, Australia’s batters, including Smith who will be leading them, batters had a harrowing time in the recent ODIs in Sri Lanka. The pitches in Lahore and Rawalpindi, where Australia will be playing their group-stage games, may not be as spin-friendly as those in Sri Lanka. But the pressure will be on Australia’s batsmen, especially against the Afghanistan spinners.

England

The build-up to the Champions Trophy couldn’t have been any worse for England, led by Jos Buttler (in picture), who were thrashed 0-3 by India in the recent ODI series. Their white-ball performance has seen a steady decline since winning the 2022 T20 World Cup crown. Agreed, England’s batting line-up is explosive and the day it clicks, it’s unstoppable, but that has just not been happening. In the India ODIs, they began well with the bat in all three matches but were laid low by poor shot selection, especially in the middle overs against both spinners and quicks. To talk of England’s bowling, pacer Jofra Archer, since his return to international cricket post-injury, appears to be a shadow of the menace he used to be in 2019. Mark Wood too has been struggling. It's high time England’s quicks understand continuously hurling short-pitched stuff close to 150kmph in subcontinent conditions won’t help. In the spin department, the entire workload is on Adil Rashid.

Afghanistan

Afghanistan have emerged as a strong force in ICC tournaments because of their stupendous record in the limited overs format in the recent past. While they defeated England and Pakistan among the major teams in the ODI World Cup in 2023, their progression to the semi-finals of the 2024 T20 World Cup has made the (in picture) Hashmatullah Shahidi-led side capable of pulling off major upsets. They will play their matches in Pakistan where spin is expected to play a vital role and Afghanistan can take a lot of hope from this. Mystery spinner AM Ghazanfar, the leading wicket-taker for them since the 2023 World Cup, will be unavailable because of an injury but they still have the experienced Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi along with the young left-armer Noor Ahmad to rattle the opposition. Their batting will revolve around the opening pair of Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran. Since the 2023 World Cup Afghanistan have won four out of their five bilateral series, including beating South Africa 2-1 in the UAE.

South Africa

When will South Africa again win a major trophy? Tournaments come and tournaments go, yet one of the most promising teams in world cricket go home empty-handed every time. They had won the inaugural edition of the Champions Trophy, in 1998. But since then, they have drawn a blank at ICC tournaments. Their infamous habit of wilting under pressure in the biggest of games has been continuing for years and years. Even last year, in the T20 World Cup final, they lost the trophy to India. Will they wriggle free of the curse that holds them down at the upcoming Champions Trophy? They have qualified for the World Test Championship final and maybe that can motivate them to replicate that success in the whiteball format too. They have a fairly balanced squad, but most of the players are yet to establish themselves as top names internationally. Captained by Temba Bavuma and with a few top-notch professionals like Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller and Kagiso Rabada in the team, the Proteas should be desperate to shed the choker’s tag.

FACT FINDER

• Australia are the only team to win the Champions Trophy twice outright -- in 2006 & 2009. India have also won it twice (2002 and 2013), but they shared the title with Sri Lanka in 2002

• Of the 50 hundreds scored in the Champions Trophy since it began in 1998, Indians have scored the most -- 10

• The fastest individual fifty and fastest individual hundred both came in the 2022 edition. Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi scored a fifty off 18 balls against the Netherlands, while India’s Virender Sehwag smashed a hundred off 77 balls against England. Both the matches were played in Colombo, Sri Lanka, but at different stadiums

• Sachin Tendulkar’s 141 and 4/38 versus Australia in Dhaka in 1998 still stands as the best all-round performance in a Champions Trophy match. Overall, South Africa’s Jacques Kallis has been the best all-rounder with 653 runs and 20 wickets.