Former Indian spinner, Ravichandran Ashwin has made wild predictions on which teams will book a place in the Semi-Finals ahead of the Champions Trophy 2025.
Ashwin has chosen India and New Zealand to advance to the semi-finals from Group A while keeping aside the defending champions, Pakistan. For group B, he has chosen ODI World Cup 2023 champions Australia and their arch-rivals England.
Furthermore, he also graded the squads of each national team participating in the mega event. India and New Zealand topped the scorecard with 85/100 while England and Australia secured 81 and 78, respectively.
Afghanistan came fifth with a score of 70 while South Africa got 68 to be placed as sixth. The bottom two teams in Ashwin’s list are Pakistan (55) and Bangladesh (40).
India’s formidable spinner also expressed his concerns over key pacer Jasprit Bumrah’s absence. He also noted another key factor that could be unfavourable for the national team.
“I’ll give them 85. I would given India a 90 had Bumrah been there because India is completely different with him in the mix. The only concern for India in my view is that all their games are in Dubai. Let’s say we lose all three tosses and are put into bat first because it’s chalk and cheese between day and night at this venue. So if opponents bat under lights, this 85 might start dropping”, stated Ashwin on his YouTube Channel.
Ashwin’s concerns come from the statistics that the teams who have opted to bat first have lost 20 out of 31 matches since 2021 at the Dubai International Stadium.
The ICC tournament will feature eight teams divided into two groups competing for the silverware from February 19. India will start their campaign against Bangladesh on February 20.
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