The 2017 Champions Trophy win was a monumental event in Pakistan’s cricket history. Lots of careers were made and reputations cemented on that famous triumph. After all, you don’t thrash India by 180 runs in the final of an ICC event every day.

But of that 15-man squad, only three survive today on the team: Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman, and Faheem Ashraf. And the latter two have also only been resurrected recently after being frozen out of the format for all of 2024 as part of the PCB’s mandatory pre-tournament shakeup where it suddenly grows tired of regular faces and rekindles its romance with old faces.

In any case, while it’s not unusual for teams to look different from what they were in the previous tournament, this is quite an extreme transformation because the 2025 tournament is being staged eight years after the previous one.

So what happened of the championship-winning squad of 2017? This:

The retirees

Azhar Ali, who had scored a valuable half century in the 2017 final and two others earlier in the tournament, was the first one of the lot to retire from ODIs, doing so in 2018.

Never a natural white-ball player, Azhar had somehow elevated his game in the Champions Trophy and was Pakistan’s second-highest scorer behind Fakhar Zaman. He quit the format the very next year to focus on Tests where he was at his most comfortable and played till Dec 2022. He is now a member of the national selection committee.

Shoaib Malik, who had a mere 54 runs in the entire 2017 tournament, was the next to retire, doing so in 2019. His exit was necessitated due to his nightmare campaign in the then World Cup, which pretty much wrote his retirement itself. His last four ODI scores read 4, 8, 0 and 0.

Though he never officially announced his T20I retirement, he says he has played his last for Pakistan. At the age of 43, he’s still active in league cricket so you never know.

Mohammad Hafeez, a valuable contributor in CT 2017 but another reluctant retiree, quit all formats in 2022. He didn’t take long to transition into coaching, becoming Pakistan’s team director and de facto head coach. That role proved rougher and shorter than his stay at the crease against Dale Steyn. The Professor was let go after just three months, following the team’s subpar displays in Australia and New Zealand under his watch. He’s had a better time in TV punditry since.

Next in line came Mohammad Amir and Imad Wasim, who seemed to have international cricket left in them but still retired in 2024 — possibly after growing frustrated with the board’s selection policy. Amir had famously starred in the CT 2017 final and Wasim was a utility player all through the tournament.

The castaways

Ahmed Shehzad only got a single game in CT 2017 and scored just 12 runs but must have received the winners’ medal. He did not formally retire but has moved into punditry so his professional playing days seem to be behind him.

In a way, he has had a revival of sorts — not on the cricket field but in front of the camera. As far as his cricket is concerned, he remains active on paper but his media success means it’s unlikely that he’d ever pad up professionally or even give it a serious go.

Junaid Khan, whose eight wickets in CT 2017 got overshadowed by Hasan Ali’s 13 and Mohammad Amir’s three-for in the final, is another who hasn’t retired officially but his transition into coaching pretty much serves as his retirement.

Haris Sohail was part of the CT 2017 squad but did not get a game. The high point of his career would come two years later in World Cup 2019 but as we know the margin of error for unglamorous members of the Pakistan team is minimal. Therefore, come 2025, he is a forgotten man.

This brings us to Rumman Raees, who got just one game in CT 2017 but did well with a two-for. He wasn’t express but seemed a smart operator and could have carved out a decent career if it weren’t for his career-threatening injuries.

The left-arm pacer is seen here and there in PSL and charity drives, but as far as playing at the highest level is concerned, it’s long been over for him.

The hopefuls

Sarfaraz Ahmed, the Champions Trophy 2017 winning captain, lost his leadership role two years later and was eventually phased out of the setup altogether. He is still active on the domestic circuit and Pakistan’s lack of options behind the wicket means that Sarfaraz’s name gets circulated every time Mohammad Rizwan needs a rest or suffers a loss of form.

He last played in Tests for Pakistan in late 2023, scoring a total of seven runs in two innings in Perth. And although he discussed his retirement plans recently, it appears as if he secretly still hopes to receive the selectors’ call. Realistically speaking, at the age of 37, his international career is all but over.

Shadab Khan, who was a teenage leggie back in 2017 and tipped to be the mainstay of Pakistan’s white-ball format, has seen his stock fall over the past year. He did not play an ODI in all of 2014 and now remains on the periphery of the main squad.

But this Feb 14, he captained Pakistan Shaheens in the warm-up against Afghanistan and finished with figures of 3-29. That was the same day that his replacement, Abrar Ahmed, went for 67 runs in the final of the tri-nation series. Since Shadab is still only 26 and can also bat and field efficiently, he should be back in the national fold once Abrar is no longer the flavour of the month for the selectors.

Of all the players who were in the team in 2017 but are not on the 2025 roster, no one’s case is as strange as Hasan Ali’s. Most of the winners from eight years ago have either retired or in the wrong side of their 30s or simply not in the selectors’ good books. Hasan Ali, who was the player of the tournament in CT 2017 and had a bowling average and strike rate rivalling all-time greats, is a shell of his former self today. He is still only 30.

Injuries, loss of focus and some other things depleted his ability, and although he last played for Pakistan just last year, he conceded 42 runs in his 3 wicketless overs against Ireland in that outing. At this point, there are quite a few pacers ahead of them in the pecking order but since age is still on his side, a comeback can never be ruled out.

The survivors

Number one on this mini-list, of course, is Babar Azam. Back in 2017, he was a sapling but had still contributed 133 runs across five innings at an average of 44.33. Since then, he has blossomed into a global batting superstar. His form coming into CT 2025 is not great but knowing Babar, he should be able to convert his rough patch into a purple one sooner than later.

Another survivor of 2017 is Fakhar Zaman, whose work in the final eight years ago is the stuff dreams are made of. That century remains arguably the greatest performance by a Pakistani cricketer in an ICC tournament, this side of Wasim Akram in the 1992 final.

At 34, he still is the hardest-hitting Pakistani batter on the roster but his approach is risky and can result in underwhelming sequences, which threatens his place in the side. He is in the 2025 squad and will open for Pakistan but his place wasn’t as guaranteed until recently when his understudy-turned-successor Saim Ayub got injured and Abdullah Shafiq went out of form.

The last of the survivors from the class of 2017 is Faheem Ashraf. He got just one game in 2017 where he picked up two wickets in a slightly expensive spell. He also scored 15 runs but got out at a crucial moment. This has been a defining theme throughout his career since: does everything well but not well enough. His failures have not been as bad that it warrants a blacklisting and his performances have not been as remarkable to retain him.

This jack of all trades was shelved in ODIs for two years between the summers of 2021 and 2023. In the Asia Cup 2023, he was pretty decent in the win against Bangladesh but bled for 74 runs in his 10 overs against India, after which he was shelved again, only to be brought back for the tri-series this month.

In his sole outing on Feb 14 against New Zealand, Ashraf, a bowling allrounder, was given just 2.2 overs. It is these things that make one question his presence on the side without a defined role and purpose.

Header image: Pakistan celebrate winning the ICC Champions Trophy 2017. — Reuters/File