IND vs AUS, Champions Trophy 2025 Semifinal Preview: Playing XI, Weather and Pitch Report, Where to Watch

India are set to square off against Australia in the ICC Men’s Champions Trophy 2025 semi-final at the Dubai International Stadium on Tuesday, starting 2:30 pm IST. The Men in Blue walk into this encounter on the back of three consecutive victories in the group stages, which was preceded by them whitewashing England 3-0 in the ODI series too.

Australia, missing key players such as Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, and Mitchell Starc, have still been a force to reckon with in the tournament. They handed England a crushing defeat in their opening encounter and ran Afghanistan close too, whereas the game against South Africa was washed out without a ball being bowled.

Also Read: Champions Trophy semi-final – I: India v Australia Head to Head in last 5 ICC events

The last time these two sides met in an ICC ODI event was an instance that did not end well for Rohit Sharma’s men. They were at the receiving end of a rather unexpected loss in the final of the World Cup in 2023. Though they partly avenged that by triumphing over Australia in the T20 World Cup last year, 50-overs cricket is a different ball game altogether, and the side will be eager to correct the mistakes they made over 14 months ago.

Predicted Playing XI 

India: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy.

Australia: Travis Head, Cooper Connolly, Steve Smith (c), Marnus Labuschagne, Josh Inglis (wk), Alex Carey, Glenn Maxwell, Spencer Johnson, Ben Dwarshuis, Nathan Ellis, Adam Zampa.

Key Players to Watch Out

Varun Chakravarthy (India)

Varun Chakravarthy has emerged as India’s trump card in this clash after grabbing a five-wicket haul against New Zealand. The X-factor that he brings to the table could catch the Australian batting order off-guard. Since the pitch in Dubai is slowing down, Varun can be effective from a dismissal-inducing perspective by hitting the right spots consistently, at the correct pace too.

Steven Smith (Australia)

Steven Smith is the glue that will hold the Australian middle-order together against the Indian spin quartet. Smith is well-versed at pacing his innings perfectly against the tweakers. If he holds one end for Australia, it will inspire the other batters around him to revolve their gameplay as per the captain’s. Moreover, Smith also brings in a wealth of captaincy experience and is a proactive leader who could make inspired bowling changes too.

Pitch Report 

The average first innings batting score in ODIs is 219, which suggests that a fairly low-scoring encounter could be on the cards on Tuesday.

Weather Report

Sunny weather with temperature ranging around 27°C is expected in Dubai, though there are around 5%-10% chances of precipitation towards the time of the second innings of the game.

Where to Watch 

The match will be telecast on the Star Sports Network, and streamed simultaneously on the JioHotstar application.