Champions Trophy 2025: Ricky Ponting Sends Warning Signals To Steve Smith's Side Ahead Of IND vs AUS Semi-Final In Dubai

Champions Trophy 2025: Rohit Sharma -led Team India have displayed a dominating performance in the ongoing Champions Trophy 2025 with three consecutive victories in the group stage. The Men in Blue have beaten Bangladesh and Pakistan by six wickets in their first two matches of the tournament. In their previous fixture of the ongoing Champions Trophy, Team India clinched a 44-run win over New Zealand while batting first.

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The mighty Australians are also unbeaten in the tournament, but they lost their main players from the squad due to injuries and undisclosed personal reasons. Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc, and Mitchell Marsh were left out of the 15-member Aussie squad before the start of the tournament due to injuries. Australian opener Matthew Short has been the recent addition to the injury list. The 29-year-old picked up an quad injury during Australia's clash against Afghanistan on February 28. All-rounder Cooper Connolly replaced Short in the squad.

Ricky Ponting Lauds The Depth In India's Batting

Before the first semi-final clash of the Champions Trophy 2025 between the two heavyweights India and Australia on March 4, former Aussie skipper Ricky Ponting backed the Men in Blue. Ponting added that Rohit Sharma's side have 'high-quality' players in the middle-order, which helps them dictate terms whenever they are in trouble.

“I think India are going to start favourites in this game. I don't think there's any doubt about that with what they've done in the tournament so far... Having lost those early wickets (against New Zealand), you know, Shreyas (Iyer) did a great job again along with Axar Patel and this Indian team, they bat very deep. So even when they do find themselves in trouble, they have got high quality players through the middle and experience at the back end of their batting innings as well," Ponting said as quoted by ICC.

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Team India Aim To Take Revenge Against Australia

The last time India took on Australia in a fifty over ICC tournament was during the 2023 World Cup, where the Aussies got the better of India in the summit clash. The match was played in the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad and the ‘men in blue’ were badly outplayed by the Pat Cummins-led side who eventually became World Champions