The Champions Trophy 2025 semi-final matchup between Team India and Australia is set. Interestingly, neither team has lost in this event. The Men in Yellow are having some injury issues, which is impacting the squad’s balance before the knockout game, while the Men in Blue are looking fine.
The Australian team has already had a large number of substitutes because of the injuries to some of its top players.
Matthew Short, the opener, has been ruled out of the series due to a quad injury, indicating that their injury problems are still ongoing.
During the postponed match against Afghanistan, Short sustained a quad injury.
In addition to losing an opener, the two-time Champions Trophy winners also lost a spin option that would have been quite useful on Dubai’s slow and low pitches. Cooper Connolly, an all-rounder, has been selected by Australia to replace Short as a result. Connolly has been a traveling reserve for the Perth Scorchers and was one of their top players in the Big Bash League.
The 21-year-old left-arm spinner and middle order hitter has only participated in three ODIs for the national team thus far. The Australian team management is faced with a selection dilemma about the squad’s composition and Travis Head’s new opening partner, so the concerns are far from ended. With Adam Zampa as the other frontline spinner, the Australians could either start Jake Fraser-McGurk at the opening spot or add someone like Tanveer Sangha to balance out their spin attack. In addition, Glenn Maxwell is already a middle order option.
In the most recent ICC knockout match, Australia defeated India.
Speaking of the Australian team’s performance, despite having a strong start to their Champions Trophy campaign, the next two games following their victory against England ended in a washout. Remarkably, the Australians have won their last three knockout matches against India and have one of the greatest records in ICC knockout competitions.
Notably, the last time the two sides faced each other was in the 2023 ODI World Cup final, where Australia defeated India to win the championship. The Steve Smith-led team will therefore want to maintain that in the next semifinal in an attempt to guarantee their spot in the Champions Trophy final, which will take place in Lahore.
India
