India vs Australia meet in an ICC event once again. Photo: ICC India vs Australia meet in an ICC event once again. Photo: ICC

It’s the biggest battle of this millennium. Its crunch time at the 2025 Champions Trophy as the number 1 ranked India lock horns with number 2 ranked Australia in the first semi-final in Dubai on Tuesday. (IND vs AUS Blog | Scorecard | Full Coverage | Cricket News)fozbet

India topped Group A entering the knockouts as the only team who won all their three group-stage encounters. On the other hand, Australia finished second in Group B and were a touch unlucky as a couple of their matches were hampered by rain.

Ahead of the mega contest today, we look at the strengths and weaknesses of the two units and some key insights which could define the semi-final.

Spin Quartet – India’s biggest strengthIndia have the best spin bowling unit in the competition and that gives them a massive edge against Australia in the first semi-final on turning conditions in Dubai. Varun Chakravarthy has been India’s most lethal wicket-taker in T20 cricket in the last one year and returned with a match-changing fifer against New Zealand on Sunday.

India then has a Chinaman (Kuldeep Yadav) and two left-arm orthodox all-rounders (Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja) to squeeze the runs in the middle overs. 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!

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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.

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Familiarity of conditionsIndia have played all their matches in Dubai which gives them a massive advantage entering the knockouts. They are used to the slow spinner-friendly track at the Dubai International Stadium, the warmer weather than Pakistan, the outfield, the surroundings and will have the support of 90% of the crowd at the stadium on Tuesday.

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. He had provided the fireworks in the first 10 overs 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. He has been phenomenally consistent registering four fifties.

Weakness: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.

Key Insights:- Rohit Sharma has the second-highest strike rate in the powerplay (120.2) only after Travis Head in all ODIs since 2022.- Varun Chakravarthy has bagged 20 wickets in 7 white-ball games for India this year at an average of 11.7, strike rate of 11.4 and economy of 6.15.

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Australia – batting coming to the partyRain continued to follow Australia at the Champions Trophy with two of their three group-stage encounters affected by the weather in this edition. While their big clash against South Africa at Rawalpindi was abandoned without a ball being bowled, their chase against Afghanistan in Lahore was also cut-short due to rain.

Australia entered the Champions Trophy with a massive handicap – they were without their three ace pacers in Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc. However, the batting came to the party big-time and we saw two (or one and a half courtesy the weather) dominating performances with the bat by the Australian top-order.

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. Australia have hammered 166 runs in the powerplay at a run-rate of 8.3 in the tournament. They blasted 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.

Lack of experience in pace attack & lack of wickets in middle oversThe bowling is the weak-link for Australia. The absence of their Big 3 will hurt the Australians at some point. Ben Dwarshuis has been the pick of their bowlers with six wickets in two games at under run-a-ball! Australia have 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.

Key Insights- Australia has defeated India in the knockout stage (quarter-finals/ semi-finals/ final) 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. However, India had a 4-1 head to head in ICC knockouts against Australia from 1998 till 2011.

- 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.fozbet