India Vs Australia Champions Trophy 2025 Semifinal: Australia's opener Matthew Short has been ruled out of the team due to injury. Cooper Connolly has been included in the team in his place.

Matthew Short (left) and Travis Head (right) Pic: Social

India Vs Australia Champions Trophy 2025 Semifinal : The first semi-final match of the Champions Trophy 2025 will be played between India and Australia on March 4 at the International Stadium in Dubai. However, before this match, a bad news has come out for the Kangaroos. The Australian team has suffered a major setback before the match. Actually, the team's dashing opener Matthew Short has been ruled out of the tournament due to injury. The team has also announced a replacement in his place. All-rounder Cooper Connolly has been included in the team in place of Short.

Was injured while fielding

In fact, Matthew Short suffered a quad injury while fielding in the match against Afghanistan. Even though Short scored 20 runs off 15 balls while batting, he was facing a lot of difficulties while running. After the match, captain Steve Smith also admitted that it may take time for Short to be fit for the semi-finals. He said, "I don't think he will be fit till the semi-finals. Today we saw that he was not feeling completely comfortable. It may take time for him to recover from this injury." (India Vs Australia Champions Trophy 2025 Semifinal)

Who will do the opening?

In the absence of Matthew Short, Australia will also have to make changes in their opening pair. However, the Kangaroos have many options for the opening pair. The first name in this list is Jake Fraser-McGurk. Fraser is a right-handed explosive batsman who has performed brilliantly in domestic cricket. Therefore, this batsman can be seen playing opening. The team also has another option, Aaron Hardy. This all-rounder player of Australia is excellent in both batting and bowling. Apart from this, Cooper Connolly, who has been included in the team in place of Matthew Short, can be the third option as an opening batsman.

Recent performance of shorts

Short's performance has been good in the Champions Trophy 2025. 29-year-old Matthew Short played an important role in Australia's victory by scoring 63 runs off 66 balls in the first match against England. At the same time, he also had a good start against Afghanistan, but could not play a big innings due to injury.

Playing-11 of both the teams

India- Rohit Sharma (captain), Shreyas Iyer, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Axar Patel, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Varun Chakraborty.

Australia- Steve Smith (captain), Sean Abbott, Alex Carey, Ben Dwarshis, Nathan Ellis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Aaron Hardy, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Spencer Johnson, Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell, Tanveer Sangha, Matthew Short, Adam Zampa.

Input- Ashish Raj