[ad_1]
It is the ultimate showdown in cricket. It is the biggest rivalry of this century. It is India vs Australia at an ICC event. It is India vs Australia in the semi-final of the 2025 Champions Trophy in Dubai! India have been in menacing form in the tournament and are the only team to win all of their group-stage encounters. Australia, on the other hand, despite the handicap in their pace attack, have looked in ominous form with the bat. We look at the strengths and weaknesses of the two teams and some key insights ahead of the mega contest.
INDIA
India’s Trump Card – Spin Quartet
India have the best spin bowling unit in the competition and that gives them a massive edge against Australia in the first semi-final in turning conditions in Dubai. Spinners have an economy rate of 4.5 in Dubai in comparison to fast bowlers who have conceded 5.35 per over at the venue.
The Indian spinners have picked 16 wickets – the most for any team in the competition at an average of 26.12 and strike rate of 34.3 – again the best in the tournament! India have variety, potency and control in their attack and that is what makes their quartet lethal in suitable conditions. Varun Chakravarthy has bagged 20 wickets in seven white-ball games for India at a strike rate of 11.4 in 2025, Kuldeep Yadav still boasts of a strike rate of 31.5 in ODI cricket while Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja will squeeze the runs in the middle overs with their immaculate line and length.
Although India boasts of a formidable batting line-up, it is their bowlers who have won them all the three matches in the tournament. They restricted Pakistan and Bangladesh to less than 250 before defending 249 against New Zealand.
Rohit & Iyer – Key to India’s batting
India has continued with the aggressive template in the powerplay with skipper Rohit Sharma taking the attack to the opposition bowlers in the first 10 overs. Rohit has the second-highest strike rate in the powerplay of 120.2 (after Travis Head) in ODIs since 2022 (min. 200 runs). He had provided the initial impetus and smashed a breathtaking 47 off just 31 deliveries the last time India faced Australia in a mega ICC knockout encounter – in the 2023 World Cup final in Ahmedabad.
Shreyas Iyer is in the form of his life and the highest impact batter of the tournament. He has hammered 331 runs in six innings at an average of 55.16 and strike rate of 100.6 since his comeback to the Indian team this year. Iyer has looked fluent against spin while he has gone ballistic against pace striking at 135 against their ilk in 2025.
Scoring Rate vs spin – India’s weakness in the middle overs
The only apparent weakness for India has been their scoring rate against spinners in the tournament – it is amongst the lowest in the competition at 72.35. Kohli has a strike rate of just 60.2 against the slower bowlers at the Champions Trophy this season.
AUSTRALIA
Australia’s destructive batting
Australia’s top and middle order have been in devastating form in the tournament and more than adequately made up for the absence of their famed pace trio of Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc. They gunned down England’s 351/8 in Lahore breaking the record for the highest chase in an ICC tournament before getting off to a rollicking start in their pursuit of 274 against Afghanistan – Australia had rocketed to 109 for 1 in the 13th over before rain stopped play.
Australia have the highest batting average of 73.3 and strike rate (121.2) in the tournament. They have blasted 166 runs in the powerplay at a run-rate of 8.3 in the competition. Australia smashed 90 against Afghanistan which is a record for the most runs in the first 10 overs at the Champions Trophy. Josh Inglis, Travis Head, Matthew Short, Marnus Labuschagne and Alex Carey have all made contributions with the bat and are striking well above 100.
Travis Head – Australia’s trump card
Travis Head has a knack of raising his game in the big knockout matches against India. He hammered a match-defining 163 off just 174 deliveries in the WTC Final at The Oval before smashing 137 off 120 deliveries in the World Cup Final in Ahmedabad later that year. He has been in spectacular form in ODIs since 2022 with an aggregate of 1455 runs in 30 matches at an average of 58.2 and strike rate of 122.16 with five hundreds! No batter has a higher scoring rate in the powerplay than Head (124.65) in this time-frame!
Big-match temperament
Australia has defeated India in the knockout stage in their last three ICC meetings – the 2015 World Cup semi-final in Sydney, the 2023 World Test Championship final at The Oval and the World Cup final in Ahmedabad later that year. Thus, they will hold a psychological advantage in a big high-pressure encounter come Tuesday. Australia have the ability to raise their game in the big matches and that will make them a tough opponent to beat in the semi-final.
Lack of experience in pace attack & lack of wickets in middle overs
The bowling is the weak-link for Australia. The absence of their Big 3 will hurt the Australians at some point. They conceded 350-plus against England and 270-plus against Afghanistan. Ben Dwarshuis has been the only bowler who has stood out and has returned with six wickets in two games at under run-a-ball!
Australia have also struggled to pick wickets in the middle overs (15-30) and have just made one breakthrough in these 15 overs in the two group-stage matches.
Topics mentioned in this article
[ad_2]
Source link
