India will take on Australia in the first semifinal of the ongoing Champions Trophy at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai on Tuesday. The Men in Blue have been unbeaten so far in the tournament as they have made the most of the familiar conditions in Dubai.
On the other hand, Australia won their opening clash against England by five wickets but their next matches against South Africa and Afghanistan could not be completed as rain played a killjoy.
The Dubai track is expected to provide assistance to the spinners and India could once again back the strategy of playing four spinners in the final XI. Varun Chakravarthy was amazing for Rohit Sharma’s team against New Zealand and it would be interesting to note India’s selection.
Adam Zampa is going to hold the key for the Aussies whereas Glenn Maxwell, and Travis Head could also play an important role in the middle overs.
Stats Preview:
Glenn Maxwell needs 17 runs to reach the 4000-run mark in the 50-over version.
Rishabh Pant needs nine fours to complete 100 boundaries.
Rohit Sharma needs four catches to complete 100 catches in ODIs.
KL Rahul needs 33 runs to complete 3000 runs in the ODI format.
Rohit Sharma needs 10 sixes to complete 350 maximums in ODIs.
Virat Kohli needs 40 runs to leapfrog Shikhar Dhawan’s tally of runs in the Champions Trophy and become India’s highest run getter in the tournament, Kohli has scored 662 runs whereas Dhawan amassed 701 runs in the major ICC tournament.
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.
