Indian team captain Sunil Gavaskar said that the Indian team would prefer to play against Australia instead of South Africa in the semi-finals of the Champions Trophy. The Indian team has already qualified for the semi-finals by winning the first two matches of the group stage.
Now they will face New Zealand on Sunday. If the Rohit Sharma-led team manages to win this match, then they will top Group A and will face Australia, which finished second in Group B, in the semi-finals.
The schedule of the semi-finals will be decided by the India-New Zealand match. The schedule of the semi-finals will be decided only after India’s last group match. South Africa has topped this group by defeating England in the last match of Group B. Gavaskar has given his opinion about whom the Indian team would like to face between Australia and South Africa in the semi-finals. This former captain of the Indian team said that Rohit’s army would like to play against Australia in the last four because the fast bowling attack of the Kangaroo team is not that experienced.
In Gavaskar’s view both teams are strong
Gavaskar said, both are strong teams, make no mistake about it. There is no team that India will name because it knows that it is now entering the knockout round. It is a do or die match here, so I don’t think they will name any favorite team. Yes, they may like to play against Australia because they have played a lot against this team and they understand the Kangaroo team more than South Africa. India played the final of the 2024 T20 World Cup against South Africa. The Indian team would like to play against Australia because their main bowler is not part of the tournament. Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood are not in the Australian team.
Australia started its campaign in the Champions Trophy with a record chase against England. England had set a target of 352 runs for Australia to win in that match and the Kangaroo team won the match on the basis of Josh Inglis’ century which was the highest successful run chase in ICC’s ODI tournament. After this, Australia’s match against South Africa and Afghanistan was washed out due to rain and the team reached the semi-finals with four points.
