Australia chose to bat first against India after winning the toss in the first semi-final of the ICC Champions Trophy 2005 in Dubai on Tuesday.
India have remained unbeaten in the group matches by winning all three matches, while Australia won one match and two of its matches were washed away by rain in Rawalpindi and Lahore.
India defeated New Zealand by 44 runs in their last Group A fixture. New Zealand, on the other hand, will face Group B winner South Africa in the second semifinal in Lahore on Wednesday.
Speaking after the toss, the Indian captain, when asked whether he would have batted or bowled if he had won the toss, said, “I was prepared to do both,”
“The wickets here have played very differently and when you are in two minds it is better to lose the toss.
“We played three games here and each time it was different. The pitch keeps changing its nature and at the end of the day you have to play good cricket.
“There are four or five surfaces here and each one has its way. Every time you come here, you know it will be challenging and the slower bowlers have come into play a lot, that is why.
“You need to have that sort of momentum with you and we want to play a good game of cricket and we have to come out and bowl well and restrict them.”
Steve Smith said after toss: “It looks like a dry pitch – it’s a dry square – we’d like to get some runs on the board,” the Australian captain said when asked about what he had to say about the pitch.
“The guys had a couple of sessions at the academy in Dubai.
“The pitch should take a lot more turn so we want runs on the board and put pressure later on. India are a very good side – we like coming up against them – and should be a good contest.”
Australia XI: Travis Head, Josh Inglis (wicketkeeper), Steven Smith (captain), Marnus Labuschagne, Cooper Connolly, Alex Carey, Glenn Maxwell, Ben Dwarshuis, Nathan Ellis, Tanveer Sangha, Adam Zampa.
India XI: Rohit Sharma (captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, KL Rahul (wicketkeeper), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy.
