Australia have won the toss and elected to bat first against India in the semi-final of the Champions Trophy 2025 at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Tuesday.
Winning the toss Australian skipper Steve Smith said, “We'll have a bat. Looks a pretty dry surface, pretty dry square, we'll like to get some runs on the board. The guys had a couple of sessions at the academy, ready to go, should be a good contest. Looks a lot drier, it should take more turn. Very good side - India - and we like coming up against them.”
“We are looking forward to it. We've got two changes. Cooper Connolly comes in for Short, Tanveer Sangha comes in for Spencer Johnson.”
Indian captain Rohit Sharma said, “I was prepared to do both. When you're in two minds, it's better to lose the toss. The pitch keeps changing its nature. You have to play good cricket. We've played good cricket in all three games and that's what we'll try to do. It's going to be challenging. We are playing with the same team. We want to continue from where we left. Now that we are bowling first, we have to bowl well and restrict them to as low as possible.”
Australia (Playing XI): Cooper Connolly, Travis Head, Steven Smith(c), Marnus Labuschagne, Josh Inglis(w), Alex Carey, Glenn Maxwell, Ben Dwarshuis, Nathan Ellis, Adam Zampa, Tanveer Sangha.
India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, KL Rahul(w), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy.
Bd-pratidin English/Tanvir Raihan
