Who: India vs Australia
What: ICC Champions Trophy 2025 semifinal
The place: Dubai Worldwide Cricket Stadium, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
When: Tuesday, March 4 at 1pm (09:00 GMT)
Observe Al Jazeera Sport’s reside textual content and photograph commentary stream.
India face Australia on Tuesday within the first semifinal of the Champions Trophy – a matchup that pits the favourites for the one-day worldwide (ODI) competitors towards the 50-over world champions.
Certainly, the sport is a repeat of the ultimate of the 2023 Cricket World Cup, wherein the Australians upset the chances to beat the hosts India within the remaining in Ahmedabad.
Does India’s Dubai location give them the sting?
India captain Rohit Sharma dismissed solutions that they’ve had an unfair benefit by being allowed to play all their Champions Trophy matches in Dubai.
India refused to tour Pakistan for the match due to the strained political relations between the bitter neighbours, who play one another solely in multi-team occasions.
The Worldwide Cricket Council (ICC), which has former Indian board secretary Jay Shah as its present chairman, has been criticised for obliging the sport’s monetary engine by letting India camp in Dubai.
Whereas different groups shuttled amongst three Pakistani cities and Dubai, India didn’t face any journey problem and gained beneficial insights into the situations in Dubai, having performed all three group matches right here.
Rohit denied they held any benefit and stated surfaces on the Dubai Worldwide Cricket Stadium behaved otherwise.
“There are 4 or 5 surfaces which might be getting used and each floor has a unique nature,” the opener stated forward of Tuesday’s semifinal towards Australia.
“The pitches look the identical, however if you play on it, it has performed differently. So, you possibly can’t go considering ‘We performed like this yesterday, and at this time we’ll play like this’.
“We don’t know which pitch goes to be performed within the semifinal. However no matter occurs, we now have to adapt and see what is occurring.
“This isn’t our dwelling; that is Dubai. We don’t play so many matches right here. That is new for us, too.”
India are unbeaten on this 12 months’s match, however Rohit predicted a troublesome contest towards Australia, who prevailed of their final encounter – the ultimate of the 2023 World Cup.
“Look, Australia have been such an excellent staff over time,” stated Rohit.
“So we are going to count on some fightbacks, we are going to count on some nervy instances as properly within the center.
“However that’s how the sport is being performed lately. And you might be speaking a couple of semifinal.”
Can Australia’s spinners come to the get together within the semifinal?
Australia spinner Adam Zampa says he’s under his finest on the Champions Trophy, however will nonetheless be able to take massive wickets within the semifinal.
Zampa took 2-48 in the washed-out group match towards Afghanistan and 2-64 within the five-wicket win over England in Lahore, Pakistan to assist Australia attain the final 4 of the ODI match.
The 32-year-old leg spinner could also be key to Australia’s hopes of victory in Dubai, the place India received their three group matches on spin-friendly wickets.
“Personally, I don’t suppose I’m bowling fairly at my finest, however I prefer to suppose the sweetness about me, once I’m not fairly at my finest and never feeling that nice on the market, is my capability to nonetheless contribute and take these massive wickets,” Zampa stated.
“So, yeah, [I am] clearly engaged on some stuff for the time being to hopefully get again to my finest.
“However as I stated, the power to nonetheless do a job for the staff and get these massive wickets continues to be there, which to me is basically essential.”
What have been the staff actions forward of the semifinals?
The Australia squad flew from Lahore to Dubai on Saturday regardless of realizing they could must fly again to Pakistan for the second semifinal relying on the results of the India-New Zealand group match.
India duly beat New Zealand by 44 runs on Sunday to make sure Australia’s early journey to Dubai was value it.
South Africa, nonetheless, had been pressured to journey again to Pakistan for the second semifinal towards New Zealand in Lahore on Wednesday.
The ICC has come beneath hearth over the scheduling however Zampa was not complaining.
“Clearly we had a little bit of a busy schedule taking part in a few video games in Pakistan, backwards and forwards in between cities,” he stated.
“It’s form of good to get right here. We’ve bought an excellent facility right here on the ICC Academy, modifications it up slightly bit as properly, so yeah, the boys are feeling OK about it.”
What are India’s and Australia’s information within the Champions Trophy?
India have twice claimed victory within the Champions Trophy, in 2002 and 2013, however misplaced the ultimate to Pakistan within the final version. Australia beat the West Indies within the 2006 remaining, earlier than defending their crown towards New Zealand in 2009.
India staff information
India went in with 4 spinners together with two all-rounders of their final group match in Dubai and got here up trumps with Varun Chakravarthy returning figures of 5-42.
Rohit stated he will probably be tempted to maintain the identical mixture towards Australia.
“He simply confirmed what he’s able to,” Rohit stated of man of the match Chakravarthy, a wrist spinner with many variations up his sleeve.
“Now it’s as much as us to suppose and see how we will get that mixture proper. He did every little thing that was requested for … it’s a good headache to have.”
India had been dealt a blow forward of the match when the ICC’s Males’s Cricketer of the Yr Jasprit Bumrah was dominated out by the bowler’s extended injury-related points.
Australia staff information
Australia have moved to cowl for Matt Brief, who has been dominated out as a result of a left quadriceps damage, with all-rounder Cooper Connolly permitted as a alternative within the squad.
Left-arm spinner Connolly will assist cowl the lack of Brief’s off-spin if the 21-year-old is chosen towards India. However the onus will probably be on Adam Zampa to guide their spin assault.
The world champions misplaced quick bowlers Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood to ankle and hip accidents respectively for the Champions Trophy. They’re additionally with out Mitchell Starc, who’s out for private causes.
Mitchell Marsh can also be absent with an damage, whereas Marcus Stoinis introduced his retirement on the eve of the match.
Type information – India
Victories in each matches to this point can have come as an enormous increase to an Indian aspect which have had restricted one-day worldwide cricket for the reason that 2023 Cricket World Cup remaining.
The three-0 sequence whitewash towards England on the eve of the match was an enormous increase following the 2-0 defeat within the three-match sequence towards Sri Lanka final August.
Type information – Australia
Australia arrived on the Champions Trophy on the again of two ODI sequence losses, together with a whitewash away to Sri Lanka, however they turned issues round of their opening sport towards outdated rivals England, earlier than a washout towards South Africa and a victory towards Afghanistan.
Final 5 ODI matches
India: W W W W W
Australia: L L W NR W
When and the place will the second semifinal be performed?
The second semifinal – between South Africa and New Zealand – will probably be performed in Lahore on Wednesday.
When and the place will the ultimate be performed?
The ultimate is scheduled to be performed in Lahore on March 9.
Ought to India attain the ultimate, nonetheless, the match will probably be switched to Dubai.
India squad:
Squad: Rohit Sharma (captain), Shubman Gill (vice captain), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wicketkeeper), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper), Ravindra Jadeja, Varun Chakravarthy.
Australia squad
Squad: Steve Smith (captain), Alex Carey (wicketkeeper), Cooper Connolly, Nathan Ellis, Aaron Hardie, Travis Head, Josh Inglis (wicketkeeper), Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell, Adam Zampa, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Sean Abbott, Ben Dwarshuis, Spencer Johnson, Tanveer Sangha.
