Team India spinner Kuldeep Yadav shared how the squad wanted to face Australia in the 2025 Champions Trophy semi-final instead of the final, given their track record. Both are favourites in international cricket, and they came face-to-face in the knockout fixture, where Team India prevailed by four wickets as well. And, Kuldeep Yadav recalled how India were happy to face Australia in the semifinal instead of the final, with the defeats in the 2023 World Test Championship (WTC) Final and the 2023 ODI World Cup Final still being tough pills to swallow.
“I had Hernia surgery in November, so it was difficult to come back and find the same rhythm. I personally believe that it was a good tournament for us. We wanted to face Australia in the semi-final, we don’t want to play them in the final. It’s a totally different pressure. Much better to play them in the semifinal rather than in the finals,” Kuldeep Yadav said on Beyond 23 Cricket Podcast.
Team India needed a stunning performance on Australian soil to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and remain alive in the race for the World Test Championship (WTC) Final as well but they lost the five-match series by a 1-3 margin eventually.
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“We lost the series against Australia, and there was a lot of media attention, and the BCCI got strict as well. You have to be on your toes every series, and that’s how it works here in India. You can’t take your place in the team for granted, because there are so many players coming up,” Kuldeep Yadav said.
Kuldeep Yadav has also claimed that the pitch at the Dubai International Stadium used for the 2025 Champions Trophy was not fully helpfull to spinners as well.
“I thought that the wicket was not that great for spinners. Obviously, it was slow, but it was difficult to produce wickets. On a good track, if you bowl a wrong’un, and the batter can’t read it, you can get him out, but not that surface in Dubai, because there was not much spin,” Kuldeep Yadav told Michael Clarke on Beyond 23 Cricket Podcast. “I think I’m bowling as well as I have ever bowled, been bowling really well for the last three-four years after my injury. I thnk I bowled well in the Champions Trophy. It was difficult to get wickets because we were playing with four spinners, but I was right on, bowling wicket-to-wicket.”
