The first semifinal of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 between India and Australia saw the Indian players walking out to field wearing black armbands after Australia skipper Steven Smith won the toss and elected to bat first, at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.
India fielded an unchanged playing XI, retaining the four-spinner attack comprising Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy, and all-rounders Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja, that successfully defended 249 against New Zealand on March 2 in a group A match.
Australia made two changes in the playing XI from their last match, bringing in 21-year-old all-rounder Connolly for injured Matthews Short, and Tanveer Sangha for Spencer Johnson, to shore up their spin attack.
IND vs AUS semifinal: India and Australia playing XIs
India
Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, KL Rahul (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy.
Australia
Steven Smith (c), Cooper Connolly, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Josh Inglis (wk), Alex Carey, Glenn Maxwell, Ben Dwarshuis, Nathan Ellis, Adam Zampa, Tanveer Sangha.
Team India wore the black armbands in a mark of respect to Mumbai cricket legend Padmakar Shivalkar, who died in the city yesterday, at the age of 84.
Who was Padmakar Shivalkar?
Arguably one of the best spinners of the country who never played for the national team, Padmakar Shivalkar made his Ranji Trophy debut at 22 and played till 48. His first-class career spanned from 1961-62 to 1987-88, during which he played 124 matches and claimed 589 wickets at 19.60 with his slow left-arm orthodox spin and accuracy.
In an emotional tribute, former India great Sunil Gavaskar said Shivalkar "deserved India cap more than some others who got it", and added that one of my greatest regrets as Indian skipper was not being able to convince selectors to include “Paddy” in the Indian team.
Shivalkar played with tennis ball for most part of his formative years, and started playing with a leather ball only after he cleared his SSC exam and was looking for a sports quota job.
One of the highlights of his career was his performance in the 1972-73 final against Madras (now, Tamil Nadu), where he had figures of 8/16 and 5/18 in the two innings.
That the legendary Bishan Singh Bedi was his contemporary, did not help, as he was always in his shadow. The presence of Maninder Singh, Ravi Shastri and later Dilip Doshi meant that Shivalkar could never break into the Indian Test team.