CT25: India makes the semi finals undefeated

[00:00:08] Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the Edges and Sledges Cricket Podcast. I'm your host Ashwin, I'm joined by DJ as we get to the business end, as they like to call it, of the Champions Trophy. DJ, how are you doing man? I know it's kind of a weird turnover, right? Like I'm sitting here since you and I last spoke and by the way, back on my regular mic, hopefully people can hear me more clearly. Hopefully our audio tracks don't have the sync issues they had before etc. And for those who don't know, I've been moving.

[00:00:38] So I've moved to a new city, I have been setting up so I haven't had my stuff, I haven't had my equipment. Are you back in Cincinnati? I'm not, I'm in Minneapolis. I live in Minneapolis, which is in the north. So it's, it's been about minus 20 Celsius for those who, who know Celsius, minus 10 Fahrenheit. So it's been, it's been pretty chilly, but it's going to get grayed out now. There's some sunshine outside, it's getting better. But new city, new house, set up all of that stuff. So excited to be here.

[00:01:08] But yeah, DJ, we were talking before I hit the record button. It's kind of a, it's kind of a bit of a shitty for lack of a better word to put it toward a word, right? I'm sitting here saying we should be celebrating. India's made it undefeated to the semis. India plays Australia. But there's this undercurrent of a few things I'm going to run through and then I'll have your point of view. One, since you and I last spoke, three matches had no result due to rain. Two didn't start. One was looking exciting, Afghanistan, Australia, and then got rained out.

[00:01:39] Australia and South Africa have both flown to Dubai because, because they weren't sure till the end of this India-New Zealand match who's going to face India. And either way, one of them, so now one of them, South Africa, who's not, who's going to face New Zealand in Pakistan in the semi, is flying back to Pakistan. And we still don't know where the final... Why would they not just wait till tomorrow? For prep days. They wanted to make sure there's enough time. Because Tuesday is the...

[00:02:05] Because it's a Tuesday game, which also they could have planned around that. And then, yeah, when, then after Tuesday's semi, we'll know where the Sunday final is going to be and whether, if New Zealand wins, they have to fly back to Pakistan. If India wins, I'm sorry, if Australia wins, they have to fly back to Pakistan. Anyway, I've gone on a long tangent, but it hasn't been the tournament we sort of hoped for, has it? The weather hasn't helped.

[00:02:32] The host nation going out and the defending champion going out pretty early, it hasn't helped. The one exciting storyline, which was the Afghanistan storyline, because I'd actually tipped them to make it to the semis. That, I mean, after they played an exciting game to beat England. Unbelievable, yeah. It was a great game. That got washed out. Although Australia were looking pretty good. Travis Head doing his thing. At that point, you never know how things change, right?

[00:03:01] Pressure, all of that stuff. And then India and Dubai played like four spinners. And I think if you're playing four spinners in a 50-over game, that says a lot about what you think the state of the pitches is likely to be. So, yeah, it's been a weird week. Varun, I think at the beginning of this tournament said that everybody's going to get really invested at the business end of the tournament. Are we? Are we invested?

[00:03:31] I mean, it might happen. Listen, I watched the India-New Zealand game. It was nice to see a guy who's been out of the ODI setup in Varun Chakravarti come back, pick up a 5-4. It was, but it was still… It was his ODI debut, wasn't it? I think he's only played T20s if I'm not wrong. I believe that. I think it may have been his debut, actually. I think he's played… I thought he had played one before. Because he played the T20 World Cup in Dubai.

[00:03:59] But maybe he has played some obscure Sri Lanka bilateral series that I've missed. He played one match in… No, no, he played… Did he not play the England game? Oh, yeah, he probably did. Yeah, wait. He played the T20s against England. Yeah, that's T20s. What am I looking at? I'm looking at a statistics page, ODI statistics for Varun Chakravarti.

[00:04:29] I'm making sure I'm looking at all this right. This is really good. This is a really good podcast in this live. In 2025, on the 9th of February, he played against England. Oh, okay. In the England, one match in the England team. So I really… I don't think I had… I thought for some reason he was in this setup before I missed out. All that tangent to say, good result for India. Nice to go in undefeated. Did you bind at all to this…

[00:04:55] The conspiracy theories, if you will, that it may have been better for us to lose this game and play South Africa in a semi, as opposed to now playing Australia in a semi. The last time we played an ODI against Australia was November of 2020. Yeah, I wonder what happened there. Yeah, who remembers that? Anyway. So this… I don't buy into this at all. If you want to win the trophy, you've got to beat the teams that come up. If you've played South Africa, beaten them in Australia, beaten New Zealand to come through

[00:05:22] in the final, you've still got to beat them to lift the trophy, right? Yeah. Sadly, we're Indian cricket fans. 19 November 2023 taught us that there's no prizes for coming second. Yep. So, you've got to beat the teams that you've got to beat to get to the end. And honestly, I'm much more comfortable playing Australia in a semi-final than a final. I mean, I think there's a bit more pressure playing Australia in a final. India played, remember?

[00:05:48] India played Australia in another semi-final recently in the World T20. The T20 World Cup semi-final where Rohit Sharma took Mitchell Stark apart. But this is an Australian team without Pat Cummins, Josh Hazelwood and Mitch Stark. So these are some slightly unknown names.

[00:06:17] This isn't the Australia that I would fear. There's one name on the team sheet that we need to get tidied up. Travis Head. It's right at the top. Always Travis Head. As Head goes. It's always true. Just like the trauma of Travis Head carries on. So once we get Head and maybe we get Maxwell, I'd be pretty comfortable. We'd be okay. And then that leaves us with having whoever comes out of South Africa, New Zealand, which

[00:06:46] I suspect may actually be South Africa with a little repeat of the World T20 World Cup final. That'll be nice as well. That'll be nice. Good prediction. I was going to save predictions for the Ed, but well said. So India versus Australia is the first semi-final. India topping group A. South Africa versus New Zealand is the second. South Africa topping group B, undefeated. I mean, they had five points because of the one rain out, but didn't lose, which is just going to be great. DJ, we'll talk about India, New Zealand for the second half of this show.

[00:07:14] Let's run down a couple other things that happened over the course of the week since you and I last connected. Right? So our last episode, New Zealand beat Bangladesh. No major surprise. Australia, South Africa getting rained out was really interesting because them splitting points changed the entire dynamic of that group. So on Wednesday, let's talk about Afghanistan versus England. So Afghanistan came out on top here. 325. Ibrahim Zadran.

[00:07:42] 177 run knock out of 146 balls. Had some nice partnerships, Serty and Nabi hit some big balls. But 325. And then although they had a Joe Root century, an absolutely brilliant five-four from Azmatullar Omar Zai, and Afghanistan won the game. So talk to me about that. DJ, you live in England, obviously. Joss Butler has now stepped down as ODI captain. He stepped down after this game.

[00:08:09] And then going into his last game, he was hoping for a better result. Obviously, England ended up losing that last game on Saturday, it was as well, against South Africa. So 0 from 3. What does England do now? Has England prioritized playing T20 style in test cricket so much, and then the 100 and T20s, and then ODIs just gotten squeezed out, and they don't have an approach for ODI cricket? It's difficult, right?

[00:08:37] Because they were the leaders in ODI cricket in 2019, and things have changed pretty quickly after that. So is it possible that they won that World Cup and then just were like, cool, we've done it. Now we want to focus on tests and T20? Well, the issue was that their test results were so bad at that point. They brought McCollum in and all the buzz became around basketball and all that stuff. And I mean, they did nothing. They got a few spectacular results chasing in test cricket, primarily off the back of

[00:09:05] Joe Root and Johnny Bairstow, basically. I don't know what happened to Johnny Bairstow, because he was their opener in the 2019 World Cup. He just disappeared. I always have a hard time hearing you say his name correctly, because I've never heard you actually get the first comment. Bonnie. Bonnie Bairstow. No, but he's gone. I don't know what's going on over there. Maybe it doesn't fit the mold of the English cricket management. And they barely qualified for the Champions Trophy after the disastrous 2023 World Cup.

[00:09:35] They were champions of the 2022 T20 World Cup. But that's kind of like Ben Stokes dragging them along. Without Stokes to balance that side, it's just more of the same. Like, it's just a bunch of people that keep smacking the ball around and hope for the best. I mean, Duckett got 165, right? So don't get me wrong. He didn't back. They got 300+. So you could sit here and say they got close, both against Australia and against Afghanistan. Yeah. And they made 300 plus in each of those games.

[00:10:04] But I don't know. I don't know what to say, really. And Butler is obviously devastated. He's resigned white ball captaincy, which I think also means T20, doesn't it? Oh, I didn't think about that. Yeah, probably. Did they not? Yeah. But English cricket is at a bit of a crossroad at the moment. They just sold 100 into ownership. Franchises, yeah. They've got franchises over there.

[00:10:34] County cricket has been pushed into the fringes so that their long-form breadball game isn't doing that great. The ODI cricket probably doesn't get a lot of prominence because it's stuck. So it's in a weird place at this moment, actually. So they are going to go down to Australia and get another thrashing. And then people will maybe sit up. But like Baz McCollum has done a lot of good for English cricket. But I think the backlash is coming to basketball.

[00:11:03] It's coming pretty soon. Yeah. I mean, people like David Willey and those guys have all just been used and discarded. And they're gone. Joffre Archer has played this Champions Trophy and that's just gone under the radar. It's just weird. Yeah. I mean, I will say so. Just on their team really quick, right? You can look at Phil Salt, Ben Duckett, Joe Root, Harry Brooke, Joss Butler, non-captaining Joss Butler, Liam Livingstone. That's a pretty good lineup. They've all had decent form recently. I have question marks on Jamie Smith.

[00:11:31] And that brings up the Johnny Bairstow question you raised, right? As we could keep her batting at three. And then from a bowling standpoint, Joffre is back, which is awesome. Mark Wood is just quality. Your question mark is Adil Rashid is 37 years old. So whenever you want to play anywhere outside, yeah, Livingstone and Root can turn their arm a little. But anywhere you want to play in the subcontinent or Dubai, you need a lead spinner. And they just don't have one. They just don't have one waiting in the rain. I mean, Rashid's class, but like...

[00:12:00] Yeah, but he's 37, right? Like, anyway. All right. So England obviously perished. It's all, you know, there's a little bit of schadenfreude. It's always fun as an India fantasy. England lost that. Then lost again to South Africa. And then really nothing else much to talk about in this week. Because Pakistan versus Bangladesh. Dead rubber to begin with. Didn't matter. Pakistan is hosted after, I think I said 37 years. It's been 29 years.

[00:12:31] And just... Obviously the rain gods are going to do what they are. You can't be upset at that. But it was disappointing. And then also you see visuals of like... I don't know if you saw the clip of the guys sweeping the ground. Where three guys were like running essentially brooms across the grass. And one guy slipped and fell. And it's like, what are your drainage conditions? What are your drainage facilities? What are the conditions of the ground? It was just really disappointing. I think.

[00:12:57] So I don't know if you spare a thought for the Pakistan team getting knocked out early in their first home tournament after so long. We talked about it at length last week. So I just don't think I expected... The ground conditions thing. I think I saw Mohamed Kef tweet about this. England doesn't cover the whole ground either. Yeah. Right? So that's not unusual. No, it's not the cover. I know that Sri Lanka is the one that covers the whole ground. It's not so much the covering.

[00:13:21] It's that even at the Chinnaswami or in obviously Sri Lankan grounds and stuff, your drainage facilities are good enough. So you can not cover the ground. But is it seasonal for so much rain in like Feb, March in Pakistan? That's a fair point. I don't know. I don't know the answer to that. Like I can't think of North India getting so much rain in Pakistan. That's far from Punjab and North India. Yeah. Why is Lahore getting so much rain in Feb? Yeah. I mean, you had Lahore and two games in Raval Prindy. Both get... Climate change, isn't it? It's real. All right.

[00:13:52] DJ, we're going to come back, talk about India, New Zealand and then touch upon the WPL a little where the Delhi Capitals have become the first team to qualify for the playoffs. But let's take a quick break. We'll be right back. Don't go anywhere. Welcome back to the Edges and Sledges Cricket Podcast. If you're on YouTube and hopefully everything's working, leave us a comment. We always get some great comments every week.

[00:14:22] Some good, some less than good, but we love to read them every time. Hit that like button. Please hit that subscribe button. It helps us grow and it helps you get a notification every time we put out a new episode. What are you talking about, Ashwin? What comment are you talking about? Honestly, they're not bad, right? But sometimes they're just editing. We take feedback. When we're falling short, we read everything. It's all it is. Yeah, that's all I'll say. Let's get back to it. DJ, let's talk about the cricket.

[00:14:52] Final game of the group stage. A week apart. I'm not getting into the debacle anymore of this whole Dubai thing and New Zealand had to travel. Both South Africa and Australia traveled fine. Let's talk about the game. So first off, four spinners, right? Harshit misses out. Varun comes in. What is your take on selection? Obviously, in hindsight, the right call. But I guess you could argue Akshar batting at five gives you that real option. Akshar five and Hardik at seven give you two all-round options

[00:15:21] that really do allow you to play with the composition of your side. And by the way, Akshar has played a pretty good role at five. As much as I was critical of the move, he's done well. So what do you think on the composition decision? I remember the match just started at 3 a.m. for me. So I woke up. I saw Varun's playing. I was like, what are you guys doing? How did you drop Kuldi? That feels unacceptable. And then I realized, no, no. They're playing Jadeja, Akshar, Varun, and Kuldi. So thoughts on that? And do you think they play the same composition going into the semi?

[00:15:50] I think there was an element preserving some of the bowling for Tuesday because there was a short turnaround. I think Grant and Descartes had already said that the night before. Also giving Varun a game. He's playing. It was a low-stakes. It was a pretty low-stakes game, right? Either you play South Africa or you play Australia. It's a champion's trophy. You've got to win the semis to win the final and then win the trophy, right?

[00:16:18] So whether you lose in the semi or whether you lose in the final is actually irrelevant, in my view. So I think they just said they would give Varun a game. And man, he delivered. What a performance by him. The pitch was sticky, actually. Because now that I think about it, we haven't bowled spin in the second innings of any of these games we've chased. And so you could see the quality of these spinners really come to the fore when they bowled second. It was a great performance.

[00:16:48] I mean, New Zealand were in the game and they'll always be in the game. And we should talk about their fielding and outrageous, some of that stuff. Like the Glenn Phillips catch of Kohli. Did I send you the reel? Yeah, did I just make fun of it. Okay. That's one. And then there's a reel of, they've like superimposed Lagan onto this. Check your Insta.

[00:17:14] The superimposed Lagan, like Captain Phillips is hitting the ball and then Laka puts his hand out and catches it one-handed and the superimposed Glenn Phillips onto it. It's unbelievable. Like some of the stuff, man, out there. It's just too good. Instagram content is unbelievable. Let's talk about the first innings then, right? Like 249 for nine on a sticky pitch, obviously enough to win by 44 runs. At the same time, DJ 15 for one and 30 for three, right? Matt Henry and Kyle Jamison.

[00:17:43] I mean, we've seen this playbook so many times. We just have, we just have, and for better or for worse, especially against New Zealand. At least it was not five for three like before. 30 for three is progress. But still, your top three are all back in the heart. And then you have Shreyas and you have Akshar at five. Talk to me about that partnership. At one point, it felt like Shreyas was batting at about 65 strike rate. Akshar was batting at 60s. He finished at a strike rate of 68.

[00:18:10] But this is the, like unlike the England playbook, this is what makes ODI, all the commentators cliches, but the middle overs are what make or break your ability to, you know, you can be 100 for one and nine overs. And if you can't bat through the middle overs, you're going to get out. Yeah. So thoughts on that? That was a great Shreyas knock, right? Yeah. And you have to give credit also to the New Zealand bowlers up front, right? Like they plan meticulously for those dismissals. It's ridiculous.

[00:18:37] The Rohit dismissal, the Gill dismissal, LBW going across, falling across. They've worked this out. And then the Kohli dismissal was super interesting because it's not a shot Kohli plays very often. It's kind of a front foot cut shot. Yeah. They've got their best fielder in that space. And he's not, there is also a regular kind of point. He's square. And like, then there's a backward point as well. So it was not like he was the only fielder there.

[00:19:05] So this is a plan that's just been brought together. And it was very impressive to watch. But the partnership between Shreyas and Akshar, how do I put this? So I've said a few times that I feel like I've woken up in the 90s watching like the way that people have batted. Sticky pitch in Dubai. Yeah. Yeah. And it was a great partnership in the context of the game overall.

[00:19:33] But if we'd lost it, if we'd lost that game, that would have been the point where we were told that you slowed down too much. The acceleration never came. All of that stuff. Akshar would have probably been hung out dry by this point. It just shows you that these guys adapt to conditions really well. And they reigned in their ego. These guys can all hit big sixes. And we saw that Shreyas, when he accelerated, hit some huge, huge sixes. But it was recognizing at that point in time is that the partnership was needed.

[00:20:02] And that's what they put together. So they put over 100 runs together, Akshar and Shreyas. Before Akshar, again, the kind of paddle swept, top-edged one and went to... It was almost a nothing shot. But that showed you the danger of the pitch, right? And anytime he tried to attack, that there was a risk associated with that attacking shot. So, yeah, I mean, attritional, a tough watch.

[00:20:25] I think, again, because we're so used to that kind of T20 slam-bam type of batting. But, yeah, I have to say I did drift in and out of that partnership just watching the score on the television. Same. I mean, it's hard. There were a lot of balls hit to cover. A lot of balls hit to fielders. I think at one point there was 101 dot balls that we played. And it's only 300-ball innings, man. Like, I don't know how many dot balls we played, but we played a lot of dot balls. Listen, that's what we talked about last week, right?

[00:20:54] It is a hard format to be in for all eight hours. And I don't truly understand the... I mean, I do. But it's hard to explain the why on Test Cricket is still so great. And yet, this format just seems hard to watch. But I'm with you. Like, watching overs 18 to 37, let's call it, right? Is just tough. Let's talk about the chase then, right? 250 to defend. Eight overs of pace, right?

[00:21:24] You had Hardik opening the bowling. He looked great, by the way. Got Rajan Ravindra out early. And then the spinners sort of did it from there. Some good partnerships. Kane Williamson actually batted well. But I think other than for... Was it... Who was it? Was it Glenn Phillips who got LBW that actually wasn't... Was actually missing and he didn't review? No, it was Bracewell. I think it was Bracewell. That was Bracewell later. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I mean... Because Daryl Mitchell reviewed and it was... Daryl was Kuldeep. Clueless.

[00:21:53] It was awesome. Tom Latham, LBW, Ravinds Vigilator. Glenn Phillips, LBW, Varun. Michael Bracewell, LBW, Varun. I mean, all of... And that was the one that was not out. Yeah. I mean, it did look out to the naked eye. It just looked like it may have been hitting out slightly outside the line, but it didn't... At no point did I think it was not going to... It was going to be like green on hitting or not hitting the stumps. But anyway, I don't think that would have changed the outcome of the game. You can't say that for sure. But the way the spinners were bowling.

[00:22:24] DJ, I kind of highlight from a bowling perspective. Obviously, you look at the scorecard and look at Varun 5 for 42. Akshar, by the way, picked up... Who did he get? He got Kane Williamson on the last ball of his spell. On the 60th ball of a turnover spell. Now, I would argue Akshar bowled the best of the bunch. And that's how bowling and partnerships works, right? I think he bowled unbelievably well. Didn't get any wickets, but put enough pressure and then got one on the last ball. So...

[00:22:51] It was also like a great wicket with the drama of Williansum just carrying on walking and Rahul waiting to break the stumps. That was very MS Dhoni-esque, the whole like wait to break the stumps. How many minutes was that before I brought up Dhoni? Pretty good. 22.5 minutes. That's pretty good. I'm losing my touch. Let's talk quickly about Rahul. There was a couple... There was a few. There was one quote-unquote drop catch where, you know, he was... It hit the edge and deflected quickly.

[00:23:19] But the best keepers know when a batter starts setting up for a date cut, you start moving that way, you know, outside off. Because there's no way it's going to go in. Like, that's the level of instinct that Dhoni had that the punts of the world are learning. But that Rahul probably still doesn't have, right? I think of when Dhoni put his foot out to stop the late cut. It's just... That was extraordinary. You cannot possibly react post the cut. You're seeing where the ball's about to go.

[00:23:46] In that split, split second, you're anticipating the type of shot. And as the batter starts moving towards Ken, your brain starts sticking your leg out. It's an unbelievable skill. I'm going to keep this clip where you've, like, praised MS. I have never denied that MS is the best keepers, one of the best keepers I've ever seen. I've also never denied... Also the ugliest possibly leg, but, like, highly effective. Unbelievable. Like, unbelievably effective. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:24:13] I've also never denied, by the way, that he was one of the greatest ODI... Or, sorry, all-format players we've had. One of the best keepers. My beef with MS has only been that he... My clip is only getting longer and longer. No, I've never denied this. Don't let the record state this wrong. My beef with MS has been where he... A match is going on and he's supposed to win at seven and he comes down and comes... He pushes somebody else forward. Then he sends tail enders and he bats at nine. Honestly, just that...

[00:24:42] It was his time sooner than I think he was willing to admit. But other than that, phenomenal player. But talk to me about that. Like, what is... And Rahul made some famous, or not famous, but well-publicized comments about being nervous about Pant, right? He sort of alluded to the fact that Pant is at his heels and he says, yeah, it comes with pressure, et cetera. Do you see a world where India goes back at some point to prioritizing specialist keepers?

[00:25:12] Or is this just kind of the new normal? So this is an interesting question as well, because the next World Cup is in South Africa. The last time there was a World Cup in South Africa, India had Rahul Dravid as the wicket keeper. Yeah. The next time after that was MS Dhoni as the wicket keeper, the T20 World Cup in 2007. So it's not a place where you really need... Well, Dhoni is obviously a specialist, but Rahul Dravid took us all the way to the final as being a makeshift, fairly reluctant wicket keeper.

[00:25:41] So I can't see KL losing his spot because of the World Cup upcoming. The problem with KL is that he's not... He's not Pant. And with every stupid, stupid, stupid clip that you have for Pant, you've also got a tuta-ya-gaba-ga-ghamandu. Because that's the range that Rishabh Pant brings for you. And Rahul is kind of reassuringly solid and he can play spin well, but he doesn't have

[00:26:09] the charm and the glamour of a Rishabh Pant, right? So... I mean, the way to articulate what you just said is I think Pant's ceiling is much higher. Correct. But his floor is much lower. This is what you do in an MBA. Yeah, that's right. But his floor is much lower, right? That's right. Rahul doesn't go as high, but doesn't get as low. His range is like... It fluctuates from here. The question is, do you back a Pant for the days that he hits the ceiling or do you back a Rahul for the stupidity? So, anyhow. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:26:39] So, do you... Yeah. That's the question, right? So, but to keep a player like Rishabh Pant, who's a T20 World Cup winner, fixture in the test side, out of this particular format where logically Pant should actually be like the first choice keeper on spinning tracks particularly. Rahul's done well. Yeah. Yeah. I really think... I mean, I think really the difference is the batting role you want, right? If you've gotten... If you're playing Akshar at five, you're playing Hardik, you're playing...

[00:27:08] I mean, do you have the space for a Rishabh in the batting lineup? So, I think that's the bigger question. Yeah. And that becomes a question. If you're playing in South Africa... Yeah. And you're playing a seeming all-rounder that's not Akshar. Yeah. Or Jadeja, let's say, whoever's around. Yeah. Do you then need the explosion from Rishabh Pant in the middle? Yeah. Or do you need the stability of a round? That'll be the question. We will figure that out.

[00:27:34] But a good win for Team India, DJ, as we wrap this section, what... Do you change anything going into the semi, right? Australia's a different beast. Travis Head, you know, just alone can be... Can cause trouble and has caused a ton of trouble to Team India before. I anticipate, to be honest, they probably go in with the same structure of four spinners. Australia's... Again, Australia's different, right? As you think about who they've played so far. Adam Zampa's played, obviously.

[00:28:04] But then you've played Spencer Johnson, who's tall, hits the deck hard. You've played Nathan Ellis. I guess they're going to bowl maybe Maxwell more, Labushale more. I don't know if they have another... Smith spinner. Steve Smith started life at a spinner. Don't forget, he started test cricket as a leg spinner. I don't know if he's even born. There is Tanveer Sangha. Why are all the spinners all over the world... I think they should have mentioned better. Ishtodi. Ishtodi.

[00:28:34] Keshav Maharaj. Adil Rashid. Yeah. Mohin Ali. Shamsi. Yeah. Anyway. Tabriz. Tabriz, Shamsi. There's a... They're playing... Yeah, they've got Sean Abbott, who's another quick. And then they're playing Tanveer Sangha. So what do you expect happens Tuesday in Dubai, India versus Australia overall? I think they'll play the same lineup. I think they will want to get Travis Head out. Yeah. That's the one that they'll be aiming for.

[00:29:05] And for that, I think the best chance for India to do that is to have four spinners. And all of them bring something slightly different, right? Yeah. Akshar and Jadeja, slightly different. Slow left arm. Kuldeep, the mystery wrist spin. And then Varun with the top spin stuff. So, I mean, the pitches are going to help them, whether they bowl first or second. So, for me, it's kind of no-brainer. I mean, I don't think the... I mean, Rana bowled well, to be fair to him. Yeah. And Shami's pretty good.

[00:29:35] But if the pitch played like it played today, just play four spinners and just tie them down. All right. DJ, by the time we get back next week, you know, we have Tuesday, Wednesday semis, and I guess the final is on Sunday. So, we have a little bit of... Is it Saturday or Sunday? We have a little bit of time until the actual final hits. Until there's a trophy. Yeah. Sunday. Let's quickly talk about the women's Premier League. So, you and I haven't had a chance to talk about it. The IPL's around the corner.

[00:30:03] First off, for the second year in a row, the Delhi Capitals have qualified for the playoffs. And in this case, the first team to qualify. It has been some absolutely magnificent ball striking. Shefali's been phenomenal. Jess Jonathan got a great half-century in the last game. By the way, Shefali has looked on the brink of a half-century three times, I think, before this. And she plays the Sehwagas games, where it doesn't matter whether you get out in the 40s or not. But it's nice to see her doing it in a winning cause.

[00:30:32] And she got 80 in the game against the Bengaluru side. But also, Shekhapandes looked good. So, sorry, this is not just a Delhi Capitals roundup. But I've been really excited. And you were actually saying before we got on, it's going to be an interesting year for us to decide how we feel about the Delhi Capitals men's side. Because it's now Kale, Rahul, Akshar Patel, etc., not Rishabh. But we'll table that. DJ, all four other teams are actually alive in the playoff hunt.

[00:31:00] Mumbai looks like they might make it with six points already. And then UP, Bengaluru, and Gujarat are all tied on four points. So, anything can still happen. How are you feeling about this year's Women's Premier League in general? You know, definitely growing in stature. They're playing in a couple different... They played in Vadodara already, then Bengaluru. And now they're moving to Lucknow. And they'll finish it off in Mumbai. Which, remember, they started as a single-city tournament. It's been great, right? The quality has been good.

[00:31:30] The progress has been great to see. Yeah, absolutely. And it's... I mean, it's a little bit of a shame. I have to say that it's been scheduled alongside the Champions Trophy. Yeah. I think it's deserving of its own window. Yeah. And the BCCI has not given it that. It did that last year. With the amount of cricket that we have going on, I think my gripe with all of this is it should not have been scheduled at this time of year. Yeah.

[00:31:57] And I'm almost tempted to say that it should be scheduled like a week before the IPL starts or like to finish a week before the IPL starts so that it builds up anticipation to the IPL as well. Yeah. But this is not... It does, right? Sorry. The final is March 15th. Correct. Correct. But this is... This is... But this is... You've got the Indian men's team playing. You've got like... It's not been great timing that way.

[00:32:26] Yeah. So... But I mean, I'm excited about Delhi. We might actually win a trophy at some point. I'm very sad that Rishabh Panth has left Delhi, as you were saying as well. I'm just like... It's been hard supporting that franchise over the years, right? And to see the talisman go to Lucknow. Yeah. Fine. Cool. He'll be back, I'm guessing. Yeah. Yeah. The part of the WAP... I mean, at least a good thing is that he became the highest paid player ever.

[00:32:55] Like it took the most amount of money ever to move Rishabh from Delhi to somewhere. Yeah. If that's what it takes. You have to be happy for him that he's made bank and a good deal for him. Good deal. He'll be back. There you go. You heard it here first. All right. DJ, I think that brings us to a wrap. Thank you for joining. Lots of cricket ahead. And before you know it, IPL season will be here. But for now, we're focused on winning an ICC trophy.

[00:33:21] If we can win another one back-to-back, I think it looks challenging. Australia first and then either South Africa or New Zealand. It's going to be interesting. Obviously, a little bit of an advantage playing in Dubai. Conditions we know. The pitch we know. Indian team gets to stay in the same hotel for two weeks. While South Africa has now flown to Dubai and is probably heading home now without having done anything in Dubai. But Australia has already been there. So that was disappointing, actually. They've been there and got there early and got to stay. So it'll be exciting.

[00:33:50] Thanks to everybody for joining. We're at OneTipOneHand on all the socials. If you're on YouTube, leave us a comment. We love to hear from you. We'll be back next week to talk the winners of the Champions Trophy and the build-up to the WPL final. And then, DJ, before you know it, we're going to be previewing the IPL 2025 season. We'll get some fantasy cricket going. It's going to be great. Thank you, everybody, for joining. This is the Edges and Sledges Cricket Podcast signing off.