Australian batters trained heavily against local spinners at the ICC Cricket Academy in Dubai. The seniors such as Steve Smith and Travis Head had a light day but the youngsters had a long three-hour training session.
Australia travelled to Dubai on March 1 to prepare themselves well ahead of the semi-final of the ongoing Champions Trophy. The Steve Smith-led side wasn’t sure about their opponent but regardless, the team decided to train heavily against the spinners, which in the end turned out to be a good decision as they will now remain in Dubai and face India in the marquee clash.
On the other hand, South Africa will travel back to Pakistan to play their semi-final match against New Zealand on February 5 in Lahore. Meanwhile, the surface in Dubai has helped the spinners and Australia know that in case they play on the same ground, they need to prepare well against them. India have heavily relied on the spinners so far in the tournament and against New Zealand, they played four of them as Varun Chakravarthy replaced Harshit Rana in the playing XI.
According to a PTI report, the Australian team had a three-hour-long practice session on Sunday, March 2. Senior cricketers such as Steve Smith and Travis Head had a light practice session but the youngsters went full throttle. They invited several local spinners to the camp and trained against them before facing India on March 4.
The Rohit Sharma-led side meanwhile defeated New Zealand in their final league game of the competition to set up the match against Australia. Their batters had a rough time in the middle but Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel and Hardik Pandya showed maturity to help the team post 249 runs in the first innings.
In the second, Chakravarthy wreaked havoc, clinching a five-wicket haul. Now, it won’t be surprising if the team backs the same playing XI against the current world champions. Interestingly, the last time these two sides met was in an ODI was the World Cup final in Ahmedabad in 2023.
