Legendary Indian cricket team batter Sunil Gavaskar made a massive prediction regarding the Champions Trophy 2025 semifinal between India and Australia in Dubai on Tuesday. Gavaskar picked the Rohit Sharma-led side as clear favourities for the encounter and even pointed out a massive weakness in the current Australia side. Gavaskar believes that Australia's spinners are not as good as India and that can turn out to be a major problem for them. He added that the absence of players like Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc will also play a huge role in the encounter.
"On this surface, yes, because Australia don't seem to have the kind of spinning attack, apart from the fact that they are missing out on key players like Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc," Gavaskar told India Today.
"Their batting is good. The batting is very aggressive. The ideal thing would be for India maybe to chase, rather than having Australia chase," he added.
There has been a lot of speculation regarding the pitch in Dubai after New Zealand failed to chase down a 250-run target with the Indian spinners producing a sensational performance. However, Gavaskar said that it is not impossible to bat on the surface.
"Not at all. Well, if you had a look at our spinners in the first few overs, they did not get much help. Later on, as the pitch got a little bit better after the rolling after the dew had settled in, there was a little more grip for the spinners, but it wasn't an impossible pitch," he said.
"There was a bit of turn. It's just that the bowlers did so well that it was impossible for New Zealanders," he added.