Why are Matthew Short and Spencer Johnson not playing Champions Trophy 2025 semi-final between India vs Australia?

Australua and India locked horns in the first semi-final of 2025 Champions Trophy at the Dubai International Stadiu. Both the teams are also yet to lose a game in the tournament and will want to continue their great form in the tournament. However, unlike India who have won three out of three, Australia have won only one game with the other two ending in no result due to rain.

Meanwhile, the semi-final will be a chance for the Men in Blue to avenge the heartbreak they suffered in Ahmedabad at the 2023 ODI World Cup. On the other hand, the Steve Smith-led side will want to make the most of this match and get closer to their third Champions Trophy title. 

Toss Update

Australia won the toss and chose to bat first. They made two changes in the playing XI, bringing in left-arm spin all-rounder Cooper Connolly and leg-spinner Tanveer Sangha for the Matthew Short and Spencer Johnson. India, on the other hand, named an unchanged XI from their previous game against New Zealand.

Connolly, Sangha make Champions Trophy debut 

The Australians made two big changes in the team. The inclusion of all-rounder Connolly was a forced one as he was named the replacement for Short, who has been ruled out due to injury. They also brought in an extra spinner in Tanveer Sangha in place of left-arm pacer Johnson due to the slowish conditions in Dubai.

What did the captains say at the toss?

Rohit Sharma (India)

I was prepared to do both. When you're in two minds, it's better to lose the toss. We've played three games here and each time it had something different in it. You can't really say this is how the pitch is going to play. The pitch keeps changing its nature. At the end of the day, you have to play good cricket and that's what we are focused on. We've played good cricket in all three games and that's what we'll look to do now. It's going to be challenging. The slower bowlers have come into play a lot, that's why we wanted same team. We played a couple of days back here, we want to continue from where we left. Now that we are bowling first, we have to bowl well and try and restrict them as less as possible.

Steve Smith (Australia)

We'll have a bat. Looks a pretty dry surface, pretty dry square, we'll like to get some runs on the board. The guys had a couple of sessions at the academy, ready to go, should be a good contest. Looks a lot drier, it should take more turn. Very good side - India - and we like coming up against them. We are looking forward to it. We've got two changes. Cooper Connolly comes in for Short, Tanveer Sangha comes in for Spencer Johnson.

IND vs AUS Playing 11: 

India:

Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, KL Rahul(w), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy.

Australia:

Cooper Connolly, Travis Head, Steven Smith(c), Marnus Labuschagne, Josh Inglis(w), Alex Carey, Glenn Maxwell, Ben Dwarshuis, Nathan Ellis, Adam Zampa, Tanveer Sangha.