Predicted: Playing XIs for the India vs Australia Champions Trophy semi-final

Four spinners or three for India?

India used 12 players in the league stage of the 2025 Champions Trophy, making only one change for their last match against New Zealand – bringing Varun Chakravarthy in for seamer Harshit Rana. Their batting lineup has been stable throughout the competition and, despite the occasional hiccup, has shown enough depth to not be a worry for the Indian management.

The only major selection question India will face ahead of the semi-final will be whether to stick with four spinners like they did against New Zealand, or go back to the three-spinner-three-seamer formula they used in the first two matches against Bangladesh and Pakistan.

Varun's record five-wicket haul has only made the choice a tougher one that it already was. With the Dubai surface progressively getting slower and turning more as the tournament has progressed, India would be tempted to stay with the same XI they fielded against New Zealand. The fact that they bowled under lights and defended a not-so-high total successfully would give them further confidence with this combination, along with the fact that dew has not played a major role so far at the venue.

Predicted XI

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

Who replaces Matt Short?

The Australia opener injured himself in the clash against Afghanistan and has been replaced by all-rounder Cooper Connolly, who was with the squad as a travelling reserve. While Connolly fits Short's batter-who-bowls-spin profile, the swap may not be straightforward. They have other options in the form of Jake Fraser-McGurk, who's in the squad as the spare opening batter, and Tanveer Sangha, the second specialist spinner.

Given the nature of Dubai's surface and the Indian batters struggles against leg-spin, Australia will be tempted to play Sangha alongside Adam Zampa in place of one of the three seamers they have played so far. If they do, the choice of seamer to drop would also be a difficult one. Nathan Ellis' slower ones would be difficult to hit in Dubai, Spencer Johnson has the x-factor about him, and Ben Dwarshuis has been in good wicket-taking form.

The other option for them would be to keep the same bowling combination intact with Zampa as the lead spinner and Glenn Maxwell as the second, and play Connolly for Short as the third spin option. They might have to push someone from the middle order up to open in that case.

Finally, Australia can also opt to go for the jugular and pick both Connolly and Sangha in the XI to make it a spin vs spin contest in Dubai.

Predicted XI

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