The Champions Trophy 2025 is not far away on the calendar, as the PCB has announced the tentative tournament date, which will start on February 21, 2025. Many questions are now coming about whether India will travel to Pakistan to play in the Champions Trophy or not, there is no question that many Pakistani public want Indian cricket team to come to their country. However, the current political tensions between both countries are not making things easy for cricket fans. Many locals in Pakistan hope to see their favorite Indian cricket stars, and one of the big stars of world cricket, Virat Kohli, is surely one of them, as they want to know him up close. Interestingly, Virat Kohli has previously played against Pakistan, and that too in Pakistan.
Virat Kohli in Pakistan
It was in 2006 when the India Under-19 team traveled to Pakistan, where a young Virat Kohli also joined the camp, just two years before his international debut, which came in 2008 against Sri Lanka. India went to Pakistan to play two Test matches and four ODIs, and the young Indian team clearly thrashed Pakistan Under-19, beating them by a 2-0 margin in Tests and 4-0 in ODIs.
In the ODIs, Virat Kohli scored 0, 45, and 80 and had a decent run. Piyush Chawla was leading the Indian camp, while for Pakistan, it was all-rounder Imad Wasim. In the Test matches, Virat scored 63 and 28 in his two innings, and India won the first game by 271 runs. In the second game, he scored 83 in the first innings as India won by an innings and 240 runs.
Will India travel to Pakistan to play in the Champions Trophy?
For now, there is still no confirmation from the BCCI about how things are going to turn out. India is looking for alternative venues that they would like to propose to the BCCI to shift their matches to other locations. It will be interesting to see how things goes now with Jay Shah, who is all set to take on the ICC President role from December 1, as this could make things interesting.