Follow Us“In sport, there's nothing more satisfying than hearing a big crowd go silent.” This is what Pat Cummins had to say before the 2023 ODI World Cup final in Ahmedabad. And guess what, Cummins and his team did exactly that as Australia defeated India to win the title, breaking millions of hearts.
India and Australia are now set to face each other in the semi-final of the ICC Champions Trophy in Dubai on March 4 (Tuesday), but there will be no Cummins. The paceman is currently recovering from an injury, and Steve Smith is leading the Australian unit. But unlike Cummins, Smith has no particular message as such, and just wants his team to put on a good show.
“I don't really have a message, to be honest. Just going out and playing and hopefully we can put on a good show. But yeah, 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,” said Smith.
“Obviously, the whole square block is pretty dry. Having spoken to the groundsman just now, a dry surface had a lot of traffic, so we've seen how the wickets have played. And India have obviously played really well in their games as well. It's going to be a good contest. We're looking forward to it.”
India have played all their games in Dubai and are coming into this encounter, having won all of their three group-stage games. Meanwhile, two of Australia’s matches were washed out, but they did get the better of England. Smith and his men played all their fixtures in Pakistan, but the batter isn’t too worried about that.
“The weather hasn't been ideal in Pakistan for us to complete one of our games. But, nah, everyone's good, everyone's ready to come and play. They're a good side, aren't they? I think it's just playing our game, playing the conditions, and playing them well for the entire 100 overs. It should be a good contest, two good teams going at it and yeah, looking forward to it.”
India played four spinners - Varun Chakaravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel - in their last game against New Zealand and used only eight overs of fast bowling. Chakaravarthy scalped a five-fer, while the other three spinners took four wickets between them. Smith said how the Australian batters tackle spin in the middle overs could decide the fate of this game.
“There's been spin throughout. So, you know, there's different ways we can attack the game whether we want to bat or bowl first tomorrow. We'll wait and see but yeah it certainly looks a dry surface it's going to be quite slow. I imagine and take some spins, as I said before, playing the spinners in the middle overs is going to be crucial for us to have success in this game.”
Like India, Australia too have some quality spin-bowling all-rounders in their XI. “We do have plenty of options there, though. We've got Tanveer Sangha in our squad. We've got Maxwell, Shorts, obviously out now, who's a bit of a loss. He's been bowling quite nicely, bowled really well last game.
“Travis Head can bowl, Marnus can bowl some overs, so Cooper Connolly if we go down that path as well. So, we've got a lot of part-time options that could certainly play a role on here and a couple of front-liners as well.”
Smith knows India’s biggest headache will be Travis Head. It was largely because of the left-handed batter India failed to win the last World Test Championship final and the 2023 ODI World Cup final. “There's pressure every time you play in a big game but as we know Travis has stood up in many of those in the past
“He looked in great touch the other night against Afghanistan and I'm sure he's going to be looking to come out here and play the same way he's played for a long time with good intent, good aggression. And hopefully, he can get away in that powerplay and get us off to a nice start.”