India will lock horns against Australia in the first semifinal of the ongoing Champions Trophy at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai on Tuesday. While Australia has played only one complete match so far in the tournament, India won all of their three games in the group stage.
Australia have always been a force to reckon with in major ICC tournaments and they showed that in their opening game of the eight-team competition when they chased down 352 runs against arch-rivals England.
The Men in Yellow might not have the big names like Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, and Mitchell Starc but their players know how to lift their game in the knockout matches.
Travis Head has been a thorn in India’s flesh as he has performed consistently in the big games. Head will be a huge wicket for India and the Men in Blue would want to execute their plans against him.
On the other hand, Rohit Sharma had played a blistering knock of 92 runs off just 41 balls against Australia in the group stage of the 2024 T20 World Cup. Sharma, who is yet to get a big score in the ongoing Champions Trophy, would want to get the job done for his team and play a similar kind of knock.
Furthermore, it will be interesting to note India’s playing XI against the Aussies as they might once again back four spinners in the team after Varun Chakravarthy blew away the Kiwis.
Match Prediction: India would enter the contest as favorites against Australia.
India: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Varun Chakaravarthy.
Australia: Steve Smith (c), Sean Abbott, Alex Carey, Ben Dwarshuis, Nathan Ellis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Aaron Hardie, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Spencer Johnson, Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell, Tanveer Sangha, Matthew Short, Adam Zampa.
