Formidable India Take On Mighty Australia In World Cup Semis

While pacers have ruled the roost for India, Thursday's match could just tilt in tourists' favour because of the presence of Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.

Especially Ashwin, with 12 wickets, could prove to be a handful for the Aussies with his drifters and doosras. The pitch has shown signs of ball stopping and gripping which would make Ashwin and his spin partner Jadeja's role very important in the bigger context of the match.

Similarly, Australia can suffer due to lack of specialist spinners for the slowish track. Equally important will be how Steve Smith, the man with best footwork against spinners, counters the Indians.

Majority of the experts, including England captain Michael Vaughan, have said that the team which wins the toss, should bat first irrespective of the conditions.

The Indians have so far has done well in the tournament on that front with the top-order batsmen getting at least one big score in seven matches that they have played so far.

Shikhar Dhawan leads the pack with 367 runs but it won't be an easy task for the left-hander, who has had problems in negotiating moving deliveries in the off-stump corridor. Starc and Johnson would certainly be asking probing questions to Dhawan.

Rohit Sharma had a quiet tournament till the quarterfinals, where he came into his own with a flowing 137. The Aussies will remember well that Rohit smashed them for a 138 at MCG during the tri-series opener after which he sustained a hamstring injury.
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