ICC Champions Trophy 2025: Gary Kirsten to be sacked as Pakistan coach after tournament

Former Pakistan National Cricket Team batsman Basit Ali has made a bold claim, saying that the current white-ball head coach of Pakistan, Gary Kirsten, will be fired by the PCB after the conclusion of the Champions Trophy 2025.

Gary Kirsten was appointed as the white-ball head coach of the Pakistan National Cricket Team on April 28, 2024. He succeeded Azhar Mahmood, who had been acting as the interim head coach during the series against New Zealand prior to Kirsten's appointment. Along with Gary Kirsten, Jason Gillespie was brought into Pakistan set-up as the red-ball head coach.

Expectations were sky-high from Team Pakistan after Kirsten, who won the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2011 as coach, joined the side. However, so far the team has only seen failures under him. The Men In Green have been consistently losing games across formats and were awful in the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2024.

Gary Kirsten's next big assignment is the Champions Trophy 2025, which will be hosted by Pakistan. The home team will be under tremendous pressure to do well in front of their people and a failure in the competition could lead to a major overhaul in the system.

Meanwhile, Basit Ali has claimed that the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 will be the last assignment of Kirsten with Team Pakistan, as after that, he will be sacked. Ali added that finishing in the top four in the Champions Trophy would be a big achievement for Babar Azam & Co.

"Congratulations to Gary Kirsten. He will be at the helm of the team till the Champions Trophy. However, he will be fired after the Champions Trophy. I am saying this now that it will be tata, bye bye for him. It will be a big achievement for Pakistan to make it to the top four. They have also stepped into the politics of Pakistani cricket. They won't be successful," Ali said in a video on YouTube video.

I think we all want a successful team - Gary Kirsten

Recently, the Pakistan Cricket Board organized a high-profile meeting dubbed a 'connection camp' where several officials were present and discussed the roadmap for the team.

Gary Kirsten, who was also part of the meeting, spoke to reporters on Monday and said that they want Pakistan to get back on track, and it will happen soon. He elaborated:

"I think we all want a successful team, don't we, and we want the team to do well in everything that they play in. And there's no reason why it can't. It's a very talented cricket team across all the formats but there are processes that you need to put in place.

"And this and I think that's what we focusing on. We want to know that we got a robust system in the country and that there's competition for places, and that our team is unified in its approach to competing against the best teams in the world."

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