ICC Champions Trophy 2025: India set to travel to Pakistan? S Jaishankar's SCO visit sparks speculation

Pakistan have received a ray of hope regarding India's travel to the country for the ICC Champions Trophy 2025. It is huge news given that India's travel to Pakistan for the tournament is still not confirmed.

Recently, news came from the Ministry of External Affairs which confirmed that the External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will travel to Pakistan for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit. Jaishankar will lead the Indian delegation for the summit.

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S Jaishankar to travel to Pakistan for SCO summit

S Jaishankar will be at the summit in Islamabad on October 15th and 16th. It is believed that Pakistan might raise the issue of the Indian cricket team's travel to the country as well. However, S Jaishankar has already stated that there will be no talks regarding India-Pakistan relations at the summit.

This is also the first time since 2015 that a foreign minister from India is traveling to Pakistan. This will give a boost to their chances of calling India across the border to play in the Champions Trophy 2025.

India and Pakistan haven't played a bilateral series with each other since 2013 when Pakistan travelled to India for a T20I and an ODI series. India have not traveled to Pakistan since the 2008 Asia Cup.

The news regarding S Jaishankar's travel has given the Pakistan Cricket Board some hope regarding India's travel for the Champions Trophy.

While all the other participating countries have confirmed their travel, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has stated that the Indian cricket team's travel for the Champions Trophy next year depends upon its government's approval.

Rajeev Shukla on India's travel to Pakistan for Champions Trophy

When asked about India's travel to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy 2025, BCCI President Rajeev Shukla informed the media that no decision has been taken yet and the final decision will be taken by the government of India

"No decision has been taken yet. But our policy is that for international tours, we always seek the government's permission. It is up to the government to decide whether our team should go to a particular country or not," Shukla was quoted as saying by PTI on the sidelines of Kanpur Test between India and Bangladesh.

The strained political relations between the two nations are the reason behind this situation. The relations got even worse after the Mumbai terror attacks in 2008, which had direct links with Pakistan.

Pakistan's last travel to India

While India hasn't traveled to Pakistan since 2008, Pakistan have been traveling to India consistently to play in the ICC tournaments. Most recently, the Men in Green traveled to India for the ODI World Cup 2023 where they failed to reach the semi-finals.

The 2023 Asia Cup was also scheduled to be held entirely in Pakistan but India's reluctance to travel to the country forced the tournament to be held in a hybrid model. As a result, India's matches, including the final, were held in Sri Lanka. India went on to win the tournament by defeating Sri Lanka in the final.