Dubai, March 4: Former skipper Ricky Ponting backed youngster Jake Fraser-McGurk to replace injured Matt Short at the top of Australia’s batting order for their ICC Champions Trophy 2025 semi-final clash against India on Tuesday.

Short was ruled out due to an injury to his left quadriceps which he sustained during Australia’s washed out Group B game against Afghanistan. His absence promotes travelling reserve Cooper Connolly into the squad.

Connolly is a powerful hitter and also a capable off-spin bowler, proving to be a like-for-like replacement but Ponting is putting his faith in Fraser-McGurk, who has so far made seven appearances for Australia in ODIs, hitting at a strike-rate of 132l, averaging just 14 runs with a top score of 41.

“He can slot straight into that position. To be honest, that’s the way I would probably go and just hope that he has one of his days because in games like these, the semi-finals, must-win, big games, you need to throw caution to the wind,” Ponting said in the latest edition of The ICC Review.

“I think he’s the sort of player that if you back him, and give him an opportunity, he might just be good enough to win a big game for you like that,” he said.

Ponting give Fraser-McGurk the nod partially due to his excellent performance in the IPL in 2024, where he finished with a strike-rate of 234 from nine innings.

“He probably has been a little bit disappointed with his output in the opportunities that he’s had in the last six months. So this might just be the game where he can do something…like he did in the IPL with the Delhi Capitals last season,” Ponting added.

Ponting also suggested some potential alternatives, including the batters that already feature in Australia’s playing XI at the Champions Trophy.

“They could even move Steve Smith up there and open the batting. He’s done a terrific job when he’s opened in T20 cricket the last couple of years. He’s a good player of fast bowling, which was one of the points I made before trying to negate that new ball and get through to those middle-overs.

“They could put Josh Inglis up there if they wanted to, and then leave someone like Cooper Connolly as another left-hander in the middle order that could give them some spin options,” he concluded.

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.”