Connolly to open, Sangha included as Australia bat first

Young allrounder Cooper Connolly has won the race to partner Travis Head in tonight's Champions Trophy semi-final against India.

Australia captain Steve Smith called correctly at the toss and chose to bat first. 

"(The pitch) looks a lot drier, I think it will take some turn. That's why we're batting first," Smith said at the toss. 

Connolly was only elevated from travelling reserve to the main squad on Monday morning following Matt Short's tournament-ending quad injury and has pipped the likes of Jake Fraser-McGurk and Aaron Hardie for the vacancy at the top of Australia’s XI.

Australia: Travis Head, Cooper Connolly, Steve Smith (c), Marnus Labuschagne, Josh Inglis (wk), Alex Carey, Glenn Maxwell, Ben Dwarshuis, Nathan Ellis, Adam Zampa, Tanveer Sangha

India: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, KL Rahul (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Varun Chakravarthy 

The 21-year-old, who has three ODI caps to his name, only has limited experience opening the batting at domestic level: He's filled the role once for Western Australia in List A cricket, scoring 13 off 23 against South Australia in November 2023.

He also opened the batting four times at the start of the KFC BBL|13 season for the Perth Scorchers, returning scores of 6, 20, 5 and 0.

The other change to the Australian XI from the washout against Afghanistan is the inclusion of Tanveer Sangha, with the leg-spinner to play his first match of the tournament at the expense of quick Spencer Johnson.

Johnson took 2-49 against Afghanistan but was expensive against England, conceding 0-54 in seven overs.

Sangha, 23, has minimal international experience having played only three ODIs, but is a different type of leg-spinner to teammate Adam Zampa, preferring to flight and spin the ball compared to Zampa's flatter, faster trajectory.

Smith hinted before the tournament that seeing both leg-spinners in the same team was a possibility.

"We could play two spinners, if we wanted," Smith told cricket.com.au.

"(We have) two main leg-spinners in our squad … there are some tricky scenarios at times when there's a left-handed batter in and it's tough to bowl two leggies.

"But there are certainly oppositions that it could definitely work against."

India, clearly, have been identified as one of those oppositions.

They have selected six right-handed batters in their top seven, with allrounder Axar Patel the odd one out.

The tournament favourites go into the match unchanged from their win over New Zealand two days ago, going heavy on spin bowlers with four selected.

There are three left-arm spinners in Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav and Axar in the XI plus mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy.

The 33-year-old Chakravarthy is the newest addition to the Indian squad, having been one of Kolkata Knight Riders' main strike weapons in the recent IPL seasons.

Playing in his second 50-over international match, Chakravarthy took 5-42 against the Kiwis to seal top spot in Group A for his side.

Rishabh Pant misses selection again with KL Rahul preferred with the gloves, while the pace overs will come from veteran seamer Mohammad Shami and allrounder Hardik Pandya.

2025 ICC Men's Champions Trophy

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Australia's Group B fixtures

February 22: Australia beat England by five wickets

February 25: No result v South Africa

February 28: No result v Afghanistan

March 4: Semi-final 1, India v Australia

March 5: Semi-final 2, South Africa v New Zealand

March 9: Final, Lahore or Dubai (8pm AEDT)

Australia squad: Steve Smith (c), Sean Abbott, Alex Carey, Cooper Connolly, Ben Dwarshuis, Nathan Ellis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Spencer Johnson, Aaron Hardie, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell, Tanveer Sangha, Adam Zampa