India’s campaign in the Champions Trophy 2025 began with several empty stands in the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai as they took on Bangladesh on Thursday, February 20. Bangladesh captain Najmul Hossain Shanto won the toss and elected to bat first. However, his decision backfired big time as Soumya Sarkar (0 off 5) and he himself got dismissed for ducks in the first two overs itself.

However, despite India being at the top of their game, there were several empty stands in the stadium, which left several fans stunned. Usually, stadiums during India matches are seen packed to the rafters with every ball getting loud cheers from the crowd.

Champions Trophy 2025: India vs Bangladesh Live

The 25,000 capacity venue was hardly filled to half its capacity, as even the most followed cricket team in the world couldn’t attract a large crowd. Earlier, during the opening game of the Champions Trophy between co-hosts Pakistan and New Zealand also witnessed low foo-fall as former cricketers such as Michael Vaughan called out the low turnout in the Karachi Stadium during the first game of the home team.

As India game also failed to bring in the crowd, fans questioned the reasons behind such a rare occurrence in international cricket. Few slammed the ICC (International Cricket Council) for poor scheduling, while others even questioned the relevance of the Champions Trophy and ODI cricket.

Former IPL (Indian Premier League) President, Lalit Modi also highlighted the empty stands at the venue and asked if the ODIs should be scrapped altogether.

“Watching the @ICC champions trophy cricket match between #india and #bangladesh. Stands are empty. That would not happen at an #ipl game. Is the one day format becoming irrelevant to the fans ? What’s your view ? Should one day cricket be scrapped and more test cricket?,” wrote Modi on his X account.

Meanwhile, after the two early strikes, India further left Bangladesh reeling at 35/5 as Mohammed Shami and Axar Patel picked two wickets each. Patel almost got his maiden hat-trick as he found the outside edge of Jaker Ali which went straight to captain Rohit Sharma at first slip, who shelled it down.