'It seemed like a wedding hall'- Basit Ali criticised Pakistan's practice session ahead of Champions Trophy 2025

Pakistan are set to host a Tri-Nation series with New Zealand and South Africa which is set to begin on 8th February at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. This will be the last series before the upcoming Champions Trophy which will also be hosted by the South Asian Nation. 

The Pakistan team was seen playing a practice intra-squad match at the Ghani Glass Ground on Tuesday just ahead of the Tri-Nation series. However, former cricketer and expert Basit Ali was not impressed with the team practising and straight away criticised the ground comparing it to a wedding hall, and mentioned that the practice match should have been played properly.  

Also Read: Pat Cummins is heavily unlikely to play Champions Trophy: Australia coach Andrew McDonald

“There is no benefit of such a match. It was a very bad ground. It seemed like a wedding hall. The pitch was such that the ball didn't bounce above the knee. Are you going to get such pitches in the tri-nation series and Champions Trophy? The match should be played in a proper way. If a batter is out then he is out,” Basit said on his YouTube Channel. 

Pakistan’s previous ODI series 

Speaking of the last few ODI series of Pakistan they had played with Australia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. They have won the last three series convincingly beating Australia and Zimbabwe 2-1 in a three-match series and whitewashing South Africa. All these series were played away from home which should give the team a lot of confidence going forward in this series which will take place in Lahore and Karachi with the final to be played on 14th February. 

Pakistan squad: Mohammad Rizwan (c) (wk), Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman, Saud Shakeel, Tayyab Tahir, Usman Khan, Salman Ali Agha (vc), Faheem Ashraf, Kamran Ghulam, Khushdil Shah, Abrar Ahmed, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Hasnain, Naseem Shah and Shaheen Shah Afridi.