2025 Champions trophy: ICC CWC top 7 to qualify automatically for the tournament in Pakistan

Those teams that are looking unlikely to win the 2023 Cricket World Cup in India or get inside the top 4, will definitely look to finish within the Top 7 of the league table. By doing so, those teams will have the chance to qualify automatically for the next ICC Champions Trophy.

Pakistan will be hosting the tournament in 2025, a year after the USA and West Indies host the ICC T20 World cup which will feature 20 teams. This news will come as a shocker to the nations that are out of the Top 7 and at the moment it is Netherlands, Bangladesh and 2019 World cup winners England.

But it will be more concerning for those nations that are not even participating in the World cup. Full time members like West Indies, Zimbabwe and Ireland are already out of the Champions Trophy 2025. Pakistan will qualify as the host nation whereas sides like India, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Sri-Lanka and  Afghanistan are currently favorites to get automatic qualification.

This referendum was discussed by the ICC in 2021 and was approved by the board members. However, some of the nations have come out to say that they didn’t know about this new change that the CWC will decide their fates for the Champions trophy.

In 2017, Pakistan had won the title and in 2025, 6 years later, the Men in Green will have the chance to defend the trophy.

Back in November 2021, ICC had revealed their plans from 2024-2031 in terms of scheduling International tournaments. The Apex cricketing body have put 2 Champions trophies in this cycle in 2025 and 2029. It will follow the same format as before with 4 teams divided into 2 groups before the Semi-finals and Final.

In fact the next Cricket World cup in 2027 will consist of 14 teams at South Africa and Zimbabwe. The hosts and the 8 highest ranked teams will qualify directly while the remaining 4 spots will be filled through global qualifiers.