England captain Jos Buttler shakes hands with India captain Rohit Sharma (Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images)
The 2025 Champions Trophy gets underway at Karachi from the 19th of February and will see eight top teams in ODI cricket compete against one another. It is expected to be a run-feast as some of the best batters in the world will showcase their mettle in the marquee event.
RG looks at five batters who could make a big impact on the tournament.
1. Rohit Sharma
Rohit is amongst the greatest openers in the history of ODI cricket with an aggregate of 10987 runs in 259 innings at an average of 49.26 and strike rate of 92.7. His 32 hundreds place him at number 3 on the all-time list after Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar. Rohit also holds the distinction for the most double hundreds in ODI cricket – the Indian batting legend has three double-tons under his belt including the world record for the highest individual score in the format’s history – Rohit hammered a sensational 264 against Sri Lanka at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata in 2014.
Although he hasn’t been at his best in Test cricket, Rohit has led India’s mini-revolution in limited-overs, playing aggressor at the top of the order focusing on maximizing runs rather than conserving wickets. He smashed a breathtaking 119 off just 90 deliveries – in an innings that included 12 fours and 7 sixes – in the recent ODI against England in Cuttack helping India gun down a stiff target of 305 with more than five overs to spare!
Amongst the 54 openers who have an aggregate of more than 3000 runs in ODIs, Rohit is the only one with an average of in excess of 50 (55.63) leaving giants like Sachin Tendulkar, Hashim Amla, Gordon Greenidge and Matthew Hayden behind.
Rohit was in stunning form in the 2023 World Cup at home and it was his selfless and devastating batting at the top of the order which lay the foundation of India’s dominance in the tournament right till their loss to Australia in the final.
Rohit has the knack of raising his game in the big world events - while he piled on 597 runs at a strike rate of 125.94 in 2023 in India, Rohit was also in incredible form in the 2019 World Cup in England where he was the leading run-getter with an aggregate of 648 runs in just nine innings which included a record five hundreds!
2. Babar Azam
Babar Azam is one of the greats of this millennium and a master of the 50-over format with the second-highest batting average (56.29) in the format’s history amongst all batters who have played a minimum of 50 matches and scored at least 3000 runs.
Babar will be Pakistan’s mainstay with the bat in home conditions where he has thrived in the past. He also has a splendid record in Dubai and that makes him someone to watch out for at the Champions Trophy. While he has hammered 1481 runs in just 23 innings at an average of 70.5 and strike rate of 94.8 with 7 hundreds in Pakistan, Babar has scored 335 runs in six matches at an average of 55.8 in Dubai.
One of the main characteristics of his batting is his play against spin bowling. Babar is a brilliant player of the turning ball with an average of 70.5 against the slower bowlers.
3. Jos Buttler
Jos Buttler is one of the greats in ODI cricket for England with an aggregate of 5114 runs in 157 innings at an average of 39.33. He is one of the most destructive middle-order batters in the history of the format with a strike rate of 116.25 – the fourth-highest in the formats history after Glenn Maxwell, Heinrich Klaasen and Shahid Afridi (min. 2000 runs).
Buttler has batted at the number 6 position for a majority of his career though he has been at his devastating best at number 4 from where he has hammered 681 runs in just 14 innings at an average of 68.1 and strike rate of 167.7 with three hundreds and as many fifties.
Buttler is an excellent player of spin and his battle with the sub-continent spinners in the middle-overs could well define England’s journey at the 2025 Champions Trophy. The England captain has an average of 52.09 and strike rate of 110.4 against spin.
Buttler has been one of the best finishers in ODI cricket ever with a strike rate of 169.1 in the overs 41-50 phase of play. His scoring rate at the death is the fourth-best in ODI history (min. 500 runs) after Heinrich Klaasen, AB de Villiers and Glenn Maxwell.
4. Travis Head
Travis Head is one of the most explosive openers in international cricket and will be key for Australia at the top of the order. The left-hander has redefined limited-overs’ batsmanship with his breathtaking stroke-play and has the ability to take the game away from the opposition within the powerplay. He has a scoring rate of 123.5 in the first 10 overs in ODIs since the beginning of 2022 – it is the highest strike rate in the world amongst all batters who have scored a minimum of 300 runs in this phase of play.
Head has serious big-match temperament and has scored the match-changing hundreds for Australia in two ICC Finals in 2023 – the WTC final at The Oval and the World Cup final in Ahmedabad. He also has a knack of producing his best when the chips are down and when others have failed around him.
Head was one of the outstanding batters of IPL 2024 – he was the leading run-getter for Sunrisers Hyderabad and played a pivotal role at the top of the order in hammering his team to the final. The southpaw blasted 567 runs in just 15 innings at a strike rate of 191.55.
5. Heinrich Klaasen
Heinrich Klaasen of South Africa is one of the most destructive finishers in limited-overs cricket with an aggregate of close to 2000 runs in ODI cricket at a scoring rate of 116.2 – it is the fourth-highest strike rate in the format’s history for a minimum of 1500 runs!
Klaasen is a brilliant player of spin with an average of 46.2 and strike rate of 123.2 against the slower bowlers. He is one of the most feared hitters and finishers in ODI cricket since his debut in February, 2018. Only Glenn Maxwell (strike rate of 185.2) and Jos Buttler (strike rate of 176.6) have a better scoring rate than Klaasen (176.2) in the death overs in this time-frame.
Nikhil Narain is a die-hard cricket romantic, published author, and has worked for some of the leading digital websites and broadcasters in India and overseas. An alumnus of the London School of Economics, Nikhil's forte is using data and numbers creatively to weave interesting stories and revolutionize the way cricket statistics are generated and analyzed.
