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Context is king as Pakistan and New Zealand open pre-Champions Trophy tri-series
A triangular ODI series is something of a curiosity that belongs in a museum more than it does in 2025. Pakistan last hostedone in 2004, and there have been none in the ODI format anywhere since 2019. When this particular series was announced not long ago, it stood out – it is the only ODI tri series in the current FTP.
Pakistan, New Zealand and South Africa will play a truncated version of the classic tri-series, with just one round of matches followed by a final. The schedule was likely squeezed by the SA20 at one end and the Champions Trophy at the other, and it is that upcoming ICC event – the first hosted by Pakistan in nearly three decades – which gives the series context.
While South Africa’s squad is weakened by player commitments at the SA20 and injuries, Pakistan and New Zealand, who take each other on in the opener, have pretty much full-strength sides. Both have named near-identical squads for this series and the Champions Trophy, and had two practice sessions at the rebuilt Gaddafi Stadium, which will officially be inaugurated on Friday, on the eve of the first game.
For each side, it offers the opportunity for precious match practice in conditions where the Champions Trophy will be held in the main (with India’s matches in Dubai). Pakistan and New Zealand will also open the marquee tournament, though that game will take place in Karachi and not Lahore. Both have played exactly nine ODIs each since the end of the 2023 World Cup, and all in very different conditions to this. While Pakistan won each of their three recent ODI series, New Zealand fell short in the one they played in the subcontinent, a 2-0 reversal against Sri Lanka.
However, it’s not as if they are short of match practice in this country. Since December 2022, they have played two Tests, eight ODIs and ten T20Is in Pakistan across four series. On most of those occasions, though, multiple factors meant New Zealand sent in weakened squads, with larger context to build up to. This time, however, there is a multi-team trophy on the line, all while preparing for the second-biggest title in ODI cricket.
It offers the visitors a chance to trial what appears a healthy balance between seam and spin in Pakistan. Captain Mitchell Santner will have Rachin Ravindra, Michael Bracewell and Glenn Phillips for slow bowling company, while they also have a battery of fast bowlers – no fewer than six – in their tri-series squad.
Pakistan appear to have shown their hand slightly more, with just one full-time spinner alongside Salman Ali Agha, their most plausible part-time spin option. There is a bit of tinkering required at the top, where it appears Fakhar Zaman, back in from the cold, will open with Babar Azam, an experiment the PCB are testing ahead of the Champions Trophy. With this their only game before the deadline to make changes to the squad on February 11, there is more riding on it for them than just the eventual outcome of the contest.
Babar Azam is always in the spotlight, but things are different this time. With Saim Ayub’s injury and Abdullah Shafique’s loss of form, ESPNcricinfo understands Pakistan’s former captain is expected to be called upon to open the batting to provide stability up top. He has, with polarising effect, performed this role in T20 cricket for several years, and more recently stood in as Test opener in Cape Town, scoring a half-century in each innings. In ODIs, however, all but 14 of his innings have come at three, and as he looks to navigate his way out of a difficult run of form, a change of position in his most prolific format will guarantee all eyes on him.
Lockie Ferguson has not played ODI cricket since the tail-end of 2023, but with Pakistan also naming four seamers in their squad, this may be a series where express pace is a factor. Fresh off a respectable showing in the ILT20, where he places among the top-ten wicket-takers, the 33-year-old Ferguson is the oldest fast bowler across all three sides this tri-series, but also the quickest. Against a makeshift Pakistan opening pair and, in Saud Shakeel and Mohammad Rizwan, middle-order players more accomplished against spin than high pace, Ferguson’s extra heat presents a locus of vulnerability for Pakistan, and a point of difference for New Zealand.
Ayub, recovering from an ankle injury, is out of the series and the Champions Trophy. Pakistan are expected to open with Fakhar and Babar, with three premier seam bowlers and Abrar Ahmed as lone frontline spinner. The middle order will see some rotation over the series.
Pakistan (likely) Fakhar Zaman, Babar Azam, Kamran Ghulam, Mohammad Rizwan (capt, wk), Tayyab Tahir/Saud Shakeel, Salman Agha, Khushdil Shah, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, Abrar Ahmed
New Zealand have two opportunities to work out their best side here before the deadline for the Champions Trophy squads shuts. The conditions would suggest three fast bowlers at a minimum. With all of New Zealand’s spinners also handy batters, balance of the side is not much of an issue.
New Zealand (possible) Devon Conway, Will Young, Rachin Ravindra, Kane Williamson, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham (wk), Glenn Phillips/Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner (capt), Lockie Ferguson, Matt Henry, Will O’Rourke
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Heat Index at Caution Level in the Northern, North-central, North-western and Eastern provinces and in Hambantota and Monaragala districts during the day time
Warm Weather Advisory
Issued by the Natural Hazards Early Warning Centre
Issued at 3.30 p.m. on 04 May 2026, valid for 05 May 2026.
The Heat index, the temperature felt on the human body is likely to increase up to ‘Caution level’ at some places in the Northern, North-central, North-western and Eastern provinces and in Hambantota and Monaragala districts during the day time.
The Heat Index Forecast is calculated by using relative humidity and maximum temperature and this is the condition that is felt on your body. This is not the forecast of maximum temperature. It is generated by the Department of Meteorology for the next day period and prepared by using global numerical weather prediction model data.
Effect of the heat index on the human body is mentioned in the above table and it is prepared on the advice of the Ministry of Health and Indigenous Medical Services.
ACTION REQUIRED
Job sites: Stay hydrated and takes breaks in the shade as often as possible.
Indoors: Check up on the elderly and the sick.
Vehicles: Never leave children unattended.
Outdoors: Limit strenuous outdoor activities, find shade and stay hydrated.
Dress: Wear lightweight and white or light-colored clothing.
Note:
In addition, please refer to advisories issued by the Disaster Preparedness & Response Division, Ministry of Health in this regard as well. For further clarifications please contact 011-7446491.
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Maldivian President plants a sapling to mark 60 years of Sri Lanka–Maldives Diplomatic Relations
President of the Maldives, Dr Mohamed Muizzu, who is on a State Visit to Sri Lanka at the invitation of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, planted a sapling this afternoon (04) at Viharamahadevi Park in Colombo to commemorate 60 years of diplomatic relations between Sri Lanka and the Maldives.
Upon arrival at the Viharamahadevi Park in Colombo, President Dr Mohamed Muizzu was warmly received by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake. Children lined both sides of the pathway holding the national flags of the two countries and paid tribute to the visiting Maldivian President.
Among those present at the occasion were Deputy Speaker Rizvi Salih, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism, Vijitha Herath and the Mayor of Colombo, Vraie Cally Balthazaar, along with several other dignitaries.
[President’s Media Division (PMD)]
For years, India’s West Bengal state was the great exception to Narendra Modi’s political advance.
His Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had swept through India’s Hindi-speaking heartland, expanded into the west and north-east, and overwhelmed once-formidable regional rivals. Yet Bengal – argumentative and steeped in a self-image of cultural exceptionalism – remained stubbornly resistant.
That made this state election unusually consequential. With more than 100 million people, West Bengal’s electorate is larger than Germany’s, turning its election into something closer to a nation choosing a government than a routine Indian state poll.
Monday’s BJP victory there would rank among the most significant breakthroughs of Modi’s 12-year reign. It is not merely the defeat of a three-term incumbent, but the completion of the party’s long march into eastern India.
“Winning Bengal is a big victory for the BJP – a land of promise that has long eluded its grasp,” says author and journalist Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
Monday produced an extrodinary political churn across India’s south as well.
In Tamil Nadu, MK Stalin’s DMK government was swept aside by actor-turned-politician Vijay and his fledgling TVK party, marking the dramatic return of film-star politics to the state.
In Kerala, the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) defeated the Left Democratic Front (LDF) after two consecutive terms, ending the last remaining Communist-led state government in India. Only in Assam did the BJP buck the broader anti-incumbent tide and retain power, while the party and its allies also held on to the federal territory of Puducherry.
Yet nowhere were the results more politically significant than in Bengal.
The state has seen only one change of government in nearly half a century: the Communist Left Front ruled for 34 years before the Trinamool Congress (TMC), led by the firebrand populist Mamata Banerjee, dominated the next 15 years until now. Political scientists have long described Bengal as a system that favours “hegemonic” parties.
Analysts see the outcome not as a sudden upheaval but as the culmination of a decade-long political project. Unlike the BJP’s rapid rise in Tripura or its earlier breakthrough in Assam, Bengal was never a lightning conquest.
“The BJP has been a major force in Bengal for three successive elections, consistently polling around 39% of the popular vote,” says Rahul Verma, who is a fellow at the Centre for Policy Research.
Once it established itself near the 39-40% mark, he argues, “the party really needed only another 5-6% to cross the line”. Voting trends show the BJP mopping up more than 44% of the vote this time.
What makes the result particularly striking is that the BJP achieved this despite still lacking the kind of deep organisational machinery that regional parties historically required to win Bengal.
The Trinamool Congress retained a denser grassroots network and the charismatic dominance of Banerjee. Yet the BJP repeatedly sustained a commanding vote share despite allegations of rival political intimidation and the challenge of taking on one of India’s most entrenched regional parties.
“That suggests,” Verma says, “the party’s support now extends beyond the limits of its relatively thin organisational structure.”
So what shifted the election so sharply towards the BJP?
For years, Banerjee’s party forged a formidable social coalition: women, Muslims and large sections of the Hindu vote across both rural and urban Bengal.
Women, in particular, formed the backbone of the party’s welfare-driven politics. The Lokniti-CSDS post-poll survey in 2021 found the TMC’s support among women touching 50% – four percentage points higher than among men – reflecting the impact of years of female-focused welfare schemes and Banerjee’s efforts to expand women’s political representation.
This time, however, the BJP sought to directly challenge that advantage by promising larger cash transfers and expanded welfare benefits of its own.
“Banerjee’s long electoral success rested on a delicate equilibrium between welfare and organisation. But the very organisation that sustained her for 15 years also became her Achilles’ heel,” says political scientist Bhanu Joshi.
“That balance broke down as the party machinery weakened and welfare politics appeared to reach its limits – voters began to see benefits as routine rather than transformative.
“The BJP’s opening was to translate this anti-TMC fatigue into a sharper language of Hindu consolidation. So this is not simply a story of welfare failing; it is a story of welfare and organisation no longer being strong enough to contain polarisation,” says Joshi.
The election also once again highlighted the centrality of Muslim voters to Bengal’s political arithmetic, even if the precise contours of voting patterns remain unclear.
Muslims make up roughly 27% of the population, and nearly a third of the state’s seats have substantial Muslim populations.
In 2021, the TMC swept 84 of 88 Muslim-dominated seats, reflecting a broad consolidation behind Banerjee. While early indications suggest the party retained significant Muslim support this time too, the BJP has increasingly sought to offset that advantage through wider Hindu consolidation and competing welfare promises.
“The BJP combined an aggressive welfare pitch with sharper polarisation. It promised to double cash benefits, while visible communalisation consolidated sections of the Bengali Hindu vote behind the party,” says Maidul Islam, a political scientist at Kolkata’s Centre for Studies in Social Sciences.
BJP leaders, however, framed the result less as ideological consolidation than as a rejection of the Trinamool Congress itself.
The TMC created a “crisis of leadership for itself,” BJP leader Dharmendra Pradhan told one news network. He accused the party of “arrogance” and claimed that “voters, particularly women angered by atrocities and law-and-order failures, had decisively rejected the Trinamool Congress”.
The other elephant in the room was the fiercely contested revision of Bengal’s electoral rolls.
The Election Commission said the exercise, known as the special intensive revision, was intended to clean up voter lists by removing duplicate or ineligible names.
But with nearly three million voters still awaiting tribunal decisions before polling, Banerjee along with activists and civil society groups alleged that Bengal had effectively gone into the election after a “mass disenfranchisement exercise”. This, they said, had disproportionately affecting poor and minority voters, especially Muslims and migrant communities in border districts.
Analysts say the exercise is now likely to come under even sharper scrutiny in closely fought seats where victory margins are much narrower than the number of deleted voters. “The revision of polls will come into play [once the results are in],” politician and activist Yogendra Yadav told NDTV news network.
But the electoral-roll controversy alone cannot explain the scale of the BJP’s surge, many believe.
What also worked in the party’s favour was a tightly focused campaign centred on alleged corruption and governance failures within the Trinamool Congress, hammering scandals such as a trachers’ recruitment scam rather than relying primarily on personal attacks against Banerjee.
With the BJP firmly on course for victory, the implications will extend far beyond Bengal.
Unlike in neighbouring Bihar, where the party governs through alliances, or even Odisha, where its 2024 breakthrough came against a weakened regional incumbent, a victory in Bengal would represent a standalone conquest of one of India’s most politically formidable states.
“It would strengthen Modi enormously,” says Mukhopadhyay.
“More than Odisha, this would be seen as a personal political victory not only for Narendra Modi, but also for Home Minister Amit Shah, who effectively ran the campaign.”
Within the BJP, Shah would almost certainly emerge as the informal ‘man of the match’ – echoing the way Modi elevated him after the party’s landmark victory in Uttar Pradesh in 2014.
A Bengal breakthrough could also reshape the BJP’s succession politics, says Mukhopadhyay.
It would reinforce Shah’s standing as Modi’s most likely heir, potentially placing him ahead of rivals such as Yogi Adityanath, Nitin Gadkari and Rajnath Singh in the party’s next-generation power hierarchy.
That would make Bengal’s verdict consequential far beyond the state itself.
For decades, Bengal prided itself on resisting the political currents reshaping the rest of India.
Now that the BJP has finally breached one of India’s most enduring regional strongholds, it may mark not just the end of an era in Bengal, but the beginning of a new phase in the Modi project itself.
[BBC]
Heat Index at Caution Level in the Northern, North-central, North-western and Eastern provinces and in Hambantota and Monaragala districts during the day time
Maldivian President plants a sapling to mark 60 years of Sri Lanka–Maldives Diplomatic Relations
Sri Lanka and Maldives strengthen ties with productive bilateral talks
Maldives and Sri Lanka exchange seven MOUs
Warm Welcome Accorded to the President of the Maldives at the Presidential Secretariat
Modi’s BJP conquers Bengal, one of India’s toughest political frontiers
‘Dates have the highest sugar content to fight Coronavirus’
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