ICC Champions Trophy 2025: PCB hopeful of India captain Rohit Sharma’s presence during opening ceremony in Pakistan

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is hopeful of India captain Rohit Sharma's presence at the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 opening ceremony, which will take place either on February 16 or 17. The ICC Champions Trophy 2025 starts on February 19 in Pakistan. The Asian country is hosting an ICC tournament for the first time in 30 years.

However, India will be playing all their ICC Champions Trophy 2025 games in Dubai including the knockouts, provided they qualify. Due to the political tensions between the two countries, India have never played a bilateral series against Pakistan since 2012. They only meet during International Cricket Council (ICC) and Asian Cricket Council (ACC) events.

With the BCCI refusing to send the Indian team to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy 2025 due to security reasons, it will be interesting to see if the Indian government allows their captain Rohit Sharma to attend the opening ceremony and also for the customary captains' photoshoot and pre-tournament press-conference in Pakistan.

The source also added that the PCB has got all the relevant clearances from the government to apply visas for all eight captains, players and team officials for the pre-tournament events.

"This obviously includes Rohit or any other Indian team player or official or board official," the source told PTI. The PCB also made it clear that they have already told ICC that the opening ceremony, featuring all captains and the teams, will be held in Pakistan.

BCCI unlikely to send entire team for opening ceremony

But it is unlikely that the BCCI will send its entire team if they decide to send only Rohit. "This is in line with the usual protocols and since the opening match is on 19th the opening ceremony can be expected either on the 16th or 17th," the source added.

The ICC Champions Trophy 2025 opening ceremony will depend on the warm-up matches list, which is yet to be announced. The source said that recently three Indian nationals, who were a part of the ICC delegation that came to Pakistan, were promptly issued visas once the world body sent their names to the PCB.