Two-time winners Australia will be on a quest to regain the Champions Trophy title after a gap of 15 years. They had won back-to-back titles in 2006 and 2009 but have failed to reach the finals in the 2013 and 2017 editions, after which the event was discontinued. For the 2025 edition, the reigning 50-over World Cup winners are placed in the four-team Group B which also includes England, South Africa, and Afghanistan. Australia will open their campaign with a clash with arch-rivals England at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore on February 22.

Be seized by injuries, Australia will be hoping to come out unscathed from the league phase and go into the semifinals without losing a single match. But it could be easier said than done for the depleted squad that is missing five first-team players as they found out in losing 0-2 to Sri Lanka in the ODI series after blanking the hosts in two Tests in Galle.

With the Champions Trophy set to start on February 19 with a match between host Pakistan and New Zealand, Australia will be looking to overcome a slew of setbacks in recent times to go all the way. Here’s an IANS SWOT analysis for Australia’s campaign in mega event.

Strengths: With proven white-ball experts like Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne and Glenn Maxwell in their ranks, Australia have a strong batting line-up. Steve Smith returns as captain, substituting for regular skipper Pat Cummins who is recuperating from an injury. They have brought in some young turks, who would be eager to prove themselves. In Adam Zampa, they have a spinner capable of exploiting the conditions offered in Pakistan. With the addition of leggie Tanveer Sangha and some young fast bowlers, Steve Smith’s Australia will be hoping to put up a strong fight in every match.

Weaknesses: The inexperienced bowling attack could prove their achilles heel in the absence of Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc, and pace-bowling all-rounders Mitchell Marsh and Marcus Stoinis, who quit cricket recently. Sean Abbott and Ben Dwarshuis, along with Nathan Ellis and Aaron Hardie will be hoping to breach the gaps left by the absence of experienced fast bowlers. Their batting looks more balanced than their bowling attack and that derails them in crucial matches against strong and better-balanced sides.

Opportunities: With the infusion of young blood to make up for the loss of exceptional campaigners, Australia come into the Champions Trophy with confidence in their domestic structure that regularly produces world-class players. Despite being battered by injuries, Australian players have the pedigree and skillset to overcome setbacks. Teams can’t afford to underestimate Australia, as they have players that can turn things around on their own on any given day.

Threat: The major task for Smith and the Australian team management will be to put on the field a strong side with the right balance of experienced and young players. The first challenge for them will be to win the group, as that would allow them to avoid the in-form side from the other group in the semifinal. In England, they have an opponent that has been battered by India in the recent white-ball series. South Africa too have been weakened by injuries to some key players, while Afghanistan is capable of surprising any team on their day.

Australia will have to put their best foot forward in each match if they have to go all the way. They can’t afford to make a lot of mistakes.

Star India batter Virat Kohli earned a valuable lifeline on the opening day of the fifth Test against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Fans around the world were left shocked after regular skipper Rohit Sharma was rested and star pacer Jasprit Bumrah was named the stand-in captain for the final Test of the five-match series. Opting to bat first, India faced early blows as openers Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul were sent back with only on the board. After their dismissals, Kohli joined hands with Shubman Gill, where he survived a close call on the very first delivery that he faced. 

Australia pacer Scott Boland almost trapped Kohli as the ball went on to hit the edge and Steve Smith, who was placed at the second slip, took a blinder to dismiss the Indian batter. Smith dived towards the right, grabbed the ball and tossed it upwards as Marnus Labuschagne took the catch. 

Just missed a beat there!

ICYMI, #ViratKohli was dropped by #SteveSmith on the very first ball he faced!#AUSvINDOnStar 5th Test, Day 1 LIVE NOW! | #ToughestRivalry #BorderGavaskarTrophy pic.twitter.com/iLhCzXCYST

— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) January 3, 2025

As the Australians were celebrating, the on-field handed over the decision to the third umpire, who then revealed that the ball first touched the ground before Smith got his hands on it. Hence, Kohli got a crucial lifeline on the first delivery. 

The drama did not end over here. After the completion of the over, both Kohli and Smith were seen exchanging some words. 

During the lunch break, Smith opened up on the incident and stood firm on his stance. He stated that he had got his hands beneath the ball and it was a complete catch.

“100%. No denying it whatsoever.”

Steve Smith weighs in on whether he got his hand underneath the ball in the biggest moment of the morning. #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/bqIy8iGIRm

— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) January 3, 2025

Even former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting completely disagreed with the third umpire’s decision. 

“As far as I was concerned, if (the ball) had’ve come out of (Smith’s) hand, he wouldn’t have been able to scoop it up. That’s what I’m saying, I think his fingers are clearly underneath the ball … look where his pointer figure is there, it’s still underneath the ball,” Ponting said on-air during the commentary with 7Cricket.

Lavishing praise on young Sam Konstas, former opener David Warner has urged Australia’s senior players to adopt a similar aggressive approach when facing Indian pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, who has been a dominant force with the ball in the ongoing series. The 19-year-old Konstas played some stunning scoops and laps off Bumrah en route to a 65-ball 60 on his Test debut during the fourth Test at Melbourne, which the Aussies won by 184 runs on Monday. “It was very special. People are going to criticise him as well. That’s the nature of the beast, that’s the way he is going to play,” Warner told AAP.

“When someone like Bumrah is bowling to you, you have to try and execute somehow. They put a third-man in and fine leg to him and bowled him through the gate (in the second innings).

“He will look back on that and go ‘what a great experience in the Boxing Day Test’. He now gets to come here for New Year’s Test.” Konstas had scored 107 off 97 balls against India for the Prime Minister’s XI. He had also scored an unbeaten 73 at the MCG against India A, besides making two centuries in the Sheffield Shield and a record-breaking 50 on debut for the Sydney Thunder in the Big Bash League.

“What he did in the Prime Minister’s XI shows he has that talent. But it also shows he is brave.” “Him being brave at the top of the order, you’ve got guys who have played 50 Tests, they could have been brave as well, they could have played different shots, they could have moved out of their crease and batted different.” Warner added that while players like Steve Smith had experimented with various approaches, it shouldn’t take a newcomer’s boldness to shift the momentum.

“Smudge (Steve Smith) tried a million different things. But it shouldn’t take someone to come out there and be brave to get that momentum shifting. You have experience at the top of the order, experience in that whole line up,” Warner said.

“Travis Head took the game away from them in Adelaide with that magnificent hundred. It shouldn’t take that guy just to come and do that. It’s the way the Australians played but other people can be braver as well.”

Bumrah is a genius

Bumrah on Sunday became the second fastest Indian along with Ravindra Jadeja to complete 200 Test wickets and the first bowler ever to reach that milestone with a sub-20 average during the fourth day’s play of the fourth Test.

The India speedstar has taken 30 wickets at an average of just 12.83 this series, including nine wickets in Melbourne.

“You’re also hoping Bumrah gets it off that handkerchief, he’s a genius. He is averaging under 20. His record is incredible,” Warner said.

“To put him off that is tough. You can’t just try and negate that. ‘Uzzy’ (Usman Khawaja) managed to face two balls in his first spell. That’s luck batters need as well.

“Fortunately for him, he got a half-century. Hopefully that builds momentum and gives him that positive energy to come into Sydney where he’s got a good record as well.” 

Australia batter Marnus Labuschagne believes that India’s historic fourth-innings chase at the Gabba in 2021 holds little relevance as they head into the final day of a gripping Boxing Day Test in Melbourne. In that memorable victory in Brisbane, India successfully chased down 328 to clinch the series. They will need to replicate a similar effort at the MCG on Monday to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and strengthen their chances of reaching the ICC World Test Championship Final, as Australia finished Day 4 at 228/9, holding a lead of 333 runs.

Despite many of India’s key players from the 2021 triumph still being present, Labuschagne believes the conditions in Melbourne and the current series context are vastly different from those in Brisbane three years ago.

“That wicket at the Gabba was flat,” Labuschagne recalled after his innings of 70 at the MCG on Sunday, as quoted by the ICC.

“There were some cracks appearing there for memory, but the wicket itself was really nice,” he said.

“I remember that wicket because I think that it (the match) almost started a day early or two days early and it was like a Day 2 wicket on Day 1 and it was quite firm,” he added.

“There was a little bit of bounce there as you do get in Brisbane, but it was a nice wicket,” he noted.

“And we were also in that position in that Test where we had to win the series, so we had to try and set a total,” he said.

“Ideally we would have liked to set India more in that game and probably bowl a few less overs, but because we had to win we had to risk it a little bit more,” he noted.

With Australia yet to be dismissed in their second innings, the exact target India will need to chase remains uncertain. Tailenders Nathan Lyon and Scott Boland frustrated the visitors by adding an unbeaten 51-run stand in the final session, pushing Australia’s lead past 300.

Labuschagne also revealed that Australia had considered declaring during the final session, but a brilliant spell from Jasprit Bumrah, which saw the Aussies lose four wickets in quick succession, forced them to abandon that plan.

“The perfect outcome for us would have probably looked like having a bowl tonight and putting them under pressure,” Labuschagne said, as quoted by ICC.

“But the way the wicket played and the way India bowled and came out and put us under pressure in that first 40 to 50 overs, that wasn’t an option for us,” he said.

“It became, let’s get as many runs as we can and that’s obviously creeping into a nice total now, but there was a time there where it could have been 250 or 270 (run lead) or maybe even less there for a bit,” he added.

“So I think we navigated that really well and the lower-order deserve a lot of credit, for how they managed that last part,” he noted.

Marnus Labuschagne and Mohammed Siraj.© AFP

Full of life and energy, Virat Kohli looked his usual self as he grabbed some fine catches in the slips on Day 2 of the third Test between India and Australia. It was Jasprit Bumrah who set the tone in the first session on Sunday, bagging the wickets of Usman Khawaja and Nathan McSweeney, before Nitish Reddy sent Marnus Labuschagne packing. Labuschagne ended up putting the ball into Kohli’s hands after trying to drive an 8th stump delivery. The India star’s celebration said the rest.

The spectators at the Gabba have been quite noisy, targeting Indian players at different intervals. Mohammed Siraj was booed when he walked out on the field, while a few others were also on the target list.

Kohli, seeing what has been going around the boundary ropes, decided to give it back to the fans with ‘finger-on-your-lips’ gesture as he caught Labuschagne on the delivery of Reddy.

India’s man with the golden arm!

Nitish Kumar Reddy breaks a flourishing partnership as Marnus Labuschagne departs! #AUSvINDOnStar 3rd Test, Day 2, LIVE NOW! | #ToughestRivalry #BorderGavaskarTrophy pic.twitter.com/p6wNCCZuTp

— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) December 15, 2024

Resuming at 28 for no loss, Australia lost Usman Khawaja (21 off 54) in the fourth over of the day when Bumrah had him caught behind with a ball that straightened slightly to take a faint outside edge. It was the third time Bumrah had got rid of the left-handed opener in the series.

In the following over, Bumrah sent back Nathan McSweeney (9 off 49) for the fourth time in three Tests, drawing a thick outside edge from an angle that travelled fast to Virat Kohli at second slip.

India were able to maintain pressure after the early breakthroughs with under pressure Steve Smith (25 batting off 68 balls) and Marnus Labuschagne (12 off 55) looking to occupy the crease.

Smith, batting with a different stance for the third time in as many games with the return of his trademark exaggerated shuffle, was tested by the Indian pacers repeatedly as they tried to target his stumps. Akash Deep and Mohammed Siraj did a pose a few questions to both Smith and Labuschagne but could not get the desired results.

Reddy, who got the ball to swing, ended Labuschagne’s vigil in the 34th over of the innings. The India all-rounder drew the Australian number three to drive off a full ball and Labuschagne took the bait only to be caught by Kohli at second slip, leaving Australia at 75 for three.

Two overs later, there was a major scare in the Indian camp as Siraj walked off the field after feeling discomfort in his left leg in the middle of his over. He was seen holding his left knee but returned to the field much to India’s relief.

The injury scare came after Siraj and Labuschagne shared a light moment as the Indian pacer walked towards the batter to swap the bails only for them to be swapped back.

Runs started flowing with in-form Travis Head (20 batting off 35) joining Smith in the middle. His cover drive off Bumrah was easily the shot of the morning.

With PTI Inputs

Mohammed Siraj bail switch episode© X (Twitter)

Marnus Labuschagne returned to form with a well-crafted 62 in the first innings in Adelaide.© AFP

As Australia gears up for the third Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against India, former Aussie opener David Warner has stressed the importance of the top order delivering big runs, given the “relentless” nature of the Indian bowling attack when they operate in partnerships. The third Test of the series is set to begin on December 14 at the Brisbane Cricket Ground. Following a humbling 295-run defeat to the visitors at Perth’s Optus Stadium–where standout performances from Jasprit Bumrah, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, and Yashasvi Jaiswal shone through–the hosts made a strong comeback. Exceptional bowling displays from Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins, along with a counter-attacking century by Travis Head, helped Australia secure a dominant 10-wicket win, chasing a modest target of 19 runs.

Speaking to the media on Wednesday, as quoted by Wide World of Sports, Warner urged the Australian batters to step up their game, alleviating the pressure on the pacers.

“I think the pressure is on all of the top order, not just Uzzie (Usman Khawaja). Travis came out and counterpunched with a brilliant hundred–we know he’s capable of that–but it’s about everyone else around him providing support,” Warner remarked.

“It’s not just one player in particular; it’s the top six scoring bulk runs and giving the fast bowlers a break. The first game was high-paced, but in the last one, we saw Mitchell Starc at his best with the pink ball. Come Brisbane, we need to see some big runs from the top order.”

“This Indian bowling attack is relentless when they bowl in partnerships. If they maintain the intensity we saw with Bumrah the other day, the boys will need to dig deep and put big runs on the board,” he added.

Warner’s concern is well-founded. Key batters have struggled to perform this series, including Khawaja (308 runs in seven Tests at an average of 25.66, with one fifty in 14 innings), Steve Smith (232 runs in seven Tests at 23.20, with one fifty in 13 innings), Marnus Labuschagne (309 runs in seven Tests at 28.09, with four fifties in 13 innings), Mitchell Marsh (272 runs in seven Tests at 24.72, with two fifties in 11 innings), and Alex Carey (317 runs in seven Tests at 31.70, with two fifties in 11 innings).

Travis Head, however, has been the standout performer, amassing 438 runs in seven Tests at an average of 39.81, with two centuries and a fifty in 11 innings. Despite his relatively limited contributions in terms of quantity, Head looks to be the most in-form batter among Australia’s top-order players.

Warner also commended opener Nathan McSweeney for his temperament and handling of the role under challenging conditions.

“He’s faced four of the five toughest challenges for an opening batsman and handled them well. The intent he showed the other day was promising. While there were questions about his selection, his performance shows why he was chosen. He has a good temperament and setup, and I think he has a bright future ahead,” said Warner.

McSweeney, after low scores of 0 and 10 in Perth, impressed with a composed 39 in Adelaide, contributing to a half-century stand with Labuschagne, followed by an unbeaten 10 in the second innings.

Despite growing calls for U19 sensation Sam Konstas to make his debut, Warner believes it’s a decision for the selectors and that Konstas may not yet be ready.

“That’s up to the selectors. If they thought he was ready, they would have picked him by now,” Warner stated.

Konstas played a vital role in Australia’s ICC U19 World Cup 2024 triumph, scoring 191 runs in seven innings at an average of 27.28, including a century. He also impressed in the series between Australia A and India A ahead of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, scoring 92 runs in four innings, highlighted by a match-winning 73*. In the warm-up pink-ball game against India, he stamped his authority with a classy 107 off 97 balls against a formidable Indian attack.

In the ongoing Sheffield Shield season, Konstas is the fifth-highest run-getter with 471 runs in five matches at an average of 58.87, including two centuries and a fifty, with a best score of 152.