Virat Kohli, the former Indian captain, who has been widely regarded as the face of cricket in the last decade or so, is headlining the initial poster of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025, an eight-nation tournament slated to be played in Pakistan. The ninth edition of the coveted Champions Trophy will be taking place from February 19 to March 19, where the defending champions Pakistan will be hosting the likes of India, Australia, England, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, New Zealand, and South Africa.
In its coveted history spanning across three decades, the ICC Champions Trophy has produced some closely contested matches with only the best teams in the world playing in it. Virat Kohli, who has been a part of the last three editions of the Champions Trophy, won it once in 2013 with the Indian cricket team against England before losing the final in the previous edition versus Pakistan in 2017.
Virat Kohli won ICC Champions Trophy in 2013 in England
The Indian batting great has scored 529 runs in 13 matches for India in the ICC Champions Trophy with an average of 88.16 and a strike-rate of 92.32, including five fifties in total. With that, Virat Kohli is in 11th place in the all-time list of the highest run scorers in the coveted torment, which is led by Chris Gayle, his former IPL teammate at the Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
In the latest poster of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025, Virat Kohli is preferred to Pakistan batting superstar Babar Azam despite it being his home tournament. Furthermore, he has also headlined the poster ahead of his teammate and Indian captain Rohit Sharma, which has raised quite a few eyebrows in the cricketing world in the lead up to the competition.
Although, with the Champions Trophy still five months away from starting in Pakistan, a few other cricketers from all over the world could feature in the upcoming posters of the tournament, both individually and separately. All in all, the ICC are set to host a plethora of men’s tournaments year upon year as per their FTP listings, which will give the opportunity to younger players to shine, and allow them to be on the posters headline their competition in the near future.