Steve Smith hints repeat of 2023 World Cup final nightmare awaits India in semis: ‘Spoke to groundsman just now…’
The chorus continues to grow regarding India having a significant advantage of playing at just one venue in the ICC Men’s Champions Trophy 2025. Nasser Hussain, Michael Atherton and Vivian Richards had earlier spoken about India not travelling and being well versed with the Dubai pitch. Ahead of the semi-final against India, Australia captain Steve Smith refrained from giving a definitive answer regarding the advantage bit. Still, he did say that India are very well versed with the conditions.
Smith also said that the pitch in Dubai is a dry surface, and hence, assistance is on the cards for the spinners. For the uninitiated, the 2023 ODI World Cup final pitch in Ahmedabad was also a similar track and Australia had managed to get the better of India.
India topped Group A after registering victories against Bangladesh, Pakistan and New Zealand. On the other hand, Australia were placed second in Group B after registering a win against England. Their matches against South Africa and Afghanistan were abandoned due to rain.
“In terms of an advantage, yeah, maybe, I’m not sure. Yeah, India obviously played all their games here. So they’ve seen what the surface is doing. Obviously, the whole square block’s pretty dry,” Smith told reporters at the pre-match press conference.
“Having spoken to the groundsman just now, it’s a dry surface, had a lot of traffic. So we’ve seen how the wickets are played. And India have obviously played really well in their games as well. So it’s going to be a good contest. We’re looking forward to it,” he added.
Australia and South Africa had travelled to Dubai before India’s last Group A match against New Zealand. However, after India’s victory, South Africa departed for Lahore to take on New Zealand in the second semi-final.
India are the only team in this tournament that have not travelled as the competition is being played in a hybrid model. The rest of the seven teams have either travelled to different parts of Pakistan or have arrived in Dubai to play against India.
“We guessed right in the end. Ideal to be here and have a couple of days preparation. I think had we stayed and waited for last night’s result, we would have had to have flown here today and played tomorrow, not get a chance to train on the surface or get used to the conditions that we have at the academy,” said Smith.
“And if we had to go back, we would have just got on the same plane back as New Zealand and had a day there before playing. So it made sense to us,” he added.
‘Tackling Varun Chakaravarthy’
Heading into the semi-final between India and Australia, all the talk is about Varun Chakaravarthy, who scalped five wickets against New Zealand. India are expected to go in with four frontline spinners to stop Steve Smith and co, in their tracks.
Smith admitted that the contest will boil down to how his batters tackle the spin challenge on a tricky Dubai surface.
“I think not just Chakaravarthy. I think the rest of their spin is a quality as well. So I think for us, the game’s probably won and lost how we play this spin, particularly in the middle overs, the way we get through there. It’s going to be a challenge. I think that there’s going to be some spin by the looks of it. We’ve got to counter that,” said Smith.
