New Delhi, March 4: As India and Australia prepare for yet another high-stakes ICC knockout clash, former Indian wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik believes Men in Blue have been the standout team of the Champions Trophy 2025 so far.

Speaking ahead of the much-anticipated semi-final on Tuesday, Karthik stated that India has played solid cricket throughout the tournament and should have no trouble advancing—provided they maintain their current form.

“The quality of India’s cricket has probably been the best of the tournament. They have played solid cricket and if they can keep that going, I don’t see any reason they can’t win,” Karthik told Sky Sports.

However, despite India’s dominance, Karthik acknowledged a key factor that could disrupt their plans—Travis Head. The Australian left-hander has been a thorn in India’s side in major finals, earning the nickname “Travis Headache” from former India coach Ravi Shastri.

Adding to the challenge for India, Head was also instrumental in Australia’s World Test Championship final victory over them last year, scoring a brilliant 163 at The Oval.

“Ravi Shastri has nicknamed him Travis ‘Headache’ as that’s what he has been for India in almost every big game. The tempo he has played at, the speed at which he has scored, has been disruptive for India and eased the pressure on the other Australia batters,” Karthik added.

Australia, the reigning ODI World Cup champions, head into the semi-final missing several key players, including Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Marsh, and Marcus Stoinis.

Despite their depleted squad, former England skipper Nasser Hussain believes that the Australians are wired differently when it comes to big-stage cricket.

“Australia won’t be bottling it. They are missing players, but their record in ICC events is fabulous. Everyone in that dressing room will have grown up watching a Steve Waugh side, a Ricky Ponting side, a Cummins side—and realized they are born to win these things. They are not here to make up the numbers, and they will believe they can overcome a very strong India side,” said Hussain.

New Delhi, March 3: Former Australia all-rounder Shane Watson, a two-time Champions Trophy winner, believes the tournament continues to create unforgettable moments, with the semifinals and final of the 2025 edition set to deliver even more special memories. Watson, who lifted the trophy with Australia in 2006 and 2009, recalls the first title win as the defining moment of his career.

“I was always a confident person, all athletes are, but it was in 2006 that I really knew I had the skill to perform for my country and help them win – and that is a different confidence, it’s a different feeling,” Watson said ahead of the upcoming knockout matches to ICC.

Being part of an all-time great Australian team featuring legends like Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Ricky Ponting, and Brett Lee, Watson initially played a supporting role. But his defining performance came in the 2006 final, where he opened the batting alongside Adam Gilchrist and scored an unbeaten 57, proving to himself that he belonged at the highest level.

His love affair with the Champions Trophy continued in 2009 when he played what he considers his finest innings – a match-winning 136 not out in the semifinal against England. He carried that form into the final against New Zealand, where he sealed both his century and Australia’s triumph with a six. “It was a magical moment,” Watson reminisced. “They are the moments you dream of. I have a couple of really nice trophies from those days, but my personal favourite is the watch I got for being man-of-the-match in the final. It’s one of the most special things I have in my house.”

As the 2025 edition nears its climax, Watson believes the current generation of players will carry similar memories with them for years to come. “The last two weeks have reminded us how special this tournament is. I hope that, in the years to come, those who have featured in it look back on it as fondly as I do now,” he said.

Dubai, March 3: Ahead of meeting Australia in the first semi-final of 2025 Champions Trophy, India skipper Rohit Sharma admitted that retaining their bowling combination of four spinners is a tempting option, but at the same time, he will give a thought over what the right bowling combination should be.

At the Dubai International Stadium on Sunday, India fielded four spinners, who picked nine wickets collectively. Wrist-spinner Varun Chakaravarthy was the standout bowler with 5-42, the best bowling figures in the ongoing Champions Trophy, in just his second ODI game to bamboozle New Zealand and ensure India end as Group A toppers.

“We really need to think, even if we want to play four spinners, how we can squeeze them. If we don’t, then we don’t. Whatever works for us in terms of the bowling options, we will try and do that.

“The reason I say that is because we are very much aware of the conditions, and know exactly what works and what doesn’t work. So, we’ll just give it a day. We’ll think about it, what is the right combination to go with. But it is tempting,” said Rohit in the pre semi-final press conference.

Asked if Chakaravarthy had made a case for his selection in the semi-final against Australia, which is a rematch of the 2023 ODI World Cup final, Rohit remarked, “He just showed what he’s capable of. Now it is up to us to think and see how we can get that combination right. Obviously, look, he got a game. He did everything that was asked for. I said it at the post-match (presentation ceremony) as well that he’s got something different about him.

“When he gets it right, he knocks people over and takes five wickets. It is very tempting to think about what to do, which is a good headache to have. We’ll just try and assess. We just want to go back and think about what the Australian batting lineup will look like and how we can try and see what kind of bowling options will work against them.”

It was in 2021 in Dubai that Chakaravarthy had endured a horror time in the Men’s T20 World Cup by going wicketless in the matches he played. On Sunday, Chakaravarthy made a very successful return to the very same venue with an incredible five-wicket haul in just his second ODI.

Rohit believes that what Chakaravarthy has been doing differently in 2025 as compared to his 2021 stint with the Indian team is his accuracy in deliveries and getting more match-playing experiences across all formats.

“Look, speaking about Varun, I think he’s become more accurate now from the last time he played for India, which was way back in 2021. I mean, there was a little bit of inexperience in him as well, because he hadn’t played a lot of cricket. But right now, in the last two or three years, he’s played a lot of cricket, whether it’s domestic cricket, IPL, and for India in T20Is, and now the ODIs as well.

“He understands his bowling really well. There is definitely something about his bowling which he’s using to his advantage. Some of our batters also couldn’t figure that out, which is always nice. But to answer that question, I think he has become more and more accurate, and the pace variation is superb.

“Watching from behind when I was standing in the slips, his variations have developed a lot more. When you have a little bit of mystery, you don’t want to be one-dimensional bowler and bowl with the same speed. You need something different in the pace variation, and the accuracy as well. So, he’s worked on both of it, and now you see that he’s getting a lot of wickets and getting more often as well, which is a good sign for us as a team,” he said.

Rohit signed off by explaining of the time when the think-tank felt it would be better to draft Chakaravarthy in place of Yashasvi Jaiswal in the main Champions Trophy squad on February 12. “With Varun, especially, we felt we had to sacrifice a batsman, as we thought it’s only five games in this tournament. It’s very unlikely that that batter is going to play at any stage, unless there’s an injury. You don’t make team thinking the worst, which is someone getting injured.”

“If somebody is injured, you can always call them upon. But with Varun, we knew that there is a chance that he might play without any injury in the team. I know there are four spinners and all of that, but we played four spinners in this game. So, looking at the surfaces here, hearing about what has happened in Dubai in the past two months, there’s a lot of cricket that has been played.”

“So, we somehow kind of knew that the surfaces are going to be slow. We were watching ILT20, which was played here, and we thought the slower bowlers will be a lot more helpful. Then we’ve got a batter sitting in the dugout anyway. If we need a batter to come in, Rishabh (Pant) is there for us. So, we thought with an extra option of the spin, there’s always a chance that we can play those guys. So that was pretty much the thinking behind that.”