Australia captain Steve Smith won the toss and elected to bat first in the first semi-final of the ongoing Champions Trophy, in Dubai. While India are unchanged from their last match, Australia made two changes as Cooper Connolly comes in for Matt Short and spinner Tanveer Sangha replaced pacer Spencer Johnson. India have now lost 14 consecutive tosses in a row, the longest such streak in ODIs – one that started with the CWC 2023 final between these two sides in Ahmedabad. Meanwhile, Rohit has now lost 11 consecutive tosses in ODIs, the joint second-highest in ODIs.
Most consecutive tosses lost by a captain in ODIs
12 – Brian Lara (West Indies, October 1998 to May 1999)
11 – Peter Borren (Netherlands, March 2011 to August 2013)
11*- Rohit Sharma (India, November 2023 to March 2025)
Here’s how internet reacted to India scripting an unwanted record:
The probability of losing 14 consecutive tosses is 1 in 16,384 or 0.000061%.
– Craziest toss luck for India. pic.twitter.com/jRqtdKWjbS
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) March 4, 2025
14 consecutive toss losses. The probability of losing 14 tosses in a row is, 1/16,384 this means it happens once in 16,384 trials on average.#INDvsAUS #RohitSharma #ViratKohli pic.twitter.com/8jDspohZOU
— Cric8fan (@cric8_official_) March 4, 2025
14 CONSECUTIVE TOSSES LOSS… #INDvsAUS pic.twitter.com/XC5FNV4ZCQ
— Polcrien News (@AD_RAJPUT777) March 4, 2025
The chance of loosing 14 consecutive tosses is 1 in 16,384 pic.twitter.com/s1ml09nYL8
— Pavan OG (@PavanTargaryen) March 4, 2025
Phirse Toss haar gaye
14th in a row pic.twitter.com/BXk5shEFUO
— SoN! || Ignore & Fly (@fanatic_devil16) March 4, 2025
Meanwhile, Connolly is making his ICC Champions Trophy debut, having played three ODIs during the tour of Sri Lanka earlier this year.
“We’ll have a bat. Looks a pretty dry surface. The guys had a couple of sessions, ready to go. It should take turn. Very good side – India. Two changes. Cooper Connolly comes in for Short, Sangha comes in for Johnson,” Australia skipper Steve Smith said at the toss.
Connolly is the fourth-youngest to represent Australia at an ICC ODI event.
India, on the other hand, have persisted with the same team. As a result, spinner Varun Chakravarthy has kept his place in the team ahead of pacer Harshit Rana.
“I was prepared to do both. When you’re confused, it’s better to lose the toss. The pitch keeps changing its nature. You have to play good cricket. We’ve played good cricket in all three games and that’s what we’ll try to do. It’s going to be challenging. We are playing with the same team. We want to continue from where we left. Now that we are bowling first, we have to bowl well and restrict them to as low as possible,” Rohit said after losing the toss.
Youngest players to represent Australia in ICC ODI events
20y 225d – Andrew Zesers vs India, Delhi, CWC 1987
21y 66d – Ricky Ponting vs Kenya, Visakhapatnam, CWC 1996
21y 90d – Shane Watson vs New Zealand, Colombo SSC, CT 2002
21y 194d – Cooper Connolly vs India, Dubai, CT 2025
21y 231d – Mitchell Marsh vs England, Edgbaston, CT 2013
21y 264d – Steven Smith vs Zimbabwe, Ahmedabad, CWC 2011
Playing XIs
Australia: Cooper Connolly, Travis Head, Steven Smith (capt), Marnus Labuschagne, Josh Inglis (wk), Alex Carey, Glenn Maxwell, Ben Dwarshuis, Nathan Ellis, Adam Zampa, Tanveer Sangha.
India: Rohit Sharma (capt), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, KL Rahul (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy.
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