Shaheen Shah Afridi turns up intensity in training ahead of India vs Pakistan, Rohit and Virat better be prepared

Hosts Pakistan began their Champions Trophy 2025 campaign on the worst possible note, crashing to a defeat against New Zealand in the opener. Now, Mohammad Rizwan and Co. need a miracle and defeat a strong Indian side to get their campaign back on track. On the other hand, India began their tournament on a winning note, defeat Bangladesh are second in Group A. Meanwhile, the hosts are bottom of the standings in Group A.

The rivalry between India and Pakistan is the most entertaining in cricket history and probably one of the biggest in world sports. For the upcoming fixture, Pakistan will also be without batter Fakhar Zaman, who has been ruled out for the remainder of the tournament due to injury.

Ahead of the upcoming blockbuster showdown, ICC shared a video of the Pakistan pacers turning up the heat during a training session. In the video, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf and Naseem Shah were involved in an intense session, sending scorching deliveries to their teammates.

Here is the video:

Going into the upcoming match, history could serve as a source of motivation for Rizwan and his side. In ODIs, Pakistan lead 73-57 in terms of head-to-head. But in their last six ODIs since 2018 against India, they have lost all fixtures. In the Champions Trophy, Pakistan lead 3-2, and their last meeting was in the 2017 final which they won.

Against New Zealand, Shaheen failed to take a single wicket and didn’t open his tournament tally. He bowled 10 overs, and leaked 68 runs and also didn’t bag any maidens. Meanwhile, Naseem took two wickets in 10 overs and Rauf also scalped two dismissals.

On Sunday, they will be up against the likes of Shubman Gill, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli. Gill, in particular, is in sizzling form and smacked an unbeaten ton against Bangladesh. Other than the three mentioned batters, India also have Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja in the batting order.