The Australian and South African teams face challenging travel plans ahead of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 semifinals as it remains uncertain whether they will play in Dubai or Pakistan. While Dubai will host the first semifinal on March 4, the second semifinal is to be played in Lahore the next day.
Although Pakistan remain the hosts of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025, Dubai is hosting the India matches as the BCCI refused to travel across borders due to security concerns. As a result, India are slated to play the first semifinal in Dubai.
However, a call on who among Australia and South Africa playing where can only be taken after the final Group A game between India and New Zealand on March 2.
What is the issue all about?
According to the tournament rules, the team finishing second in Group A will meet the winners of Group B and vice-versa. Rohit Sharma’s India will anyway play their knockout game in Dubai on Tuesday irrespective of the position in the group A.
As a result, although Group B commitments end on Saturday, South Africa and Australia will be able to get to know about their semifinal venues after the completition of the India vs New Zealand game.
Based on a BBC report, there is a possibility that both Australia and South Africa travel to Dubai from Pakistan and one have to return back.
“Group B concludes with South Africa’s match against England on Saturday but neither the Proteas or Australia will know the venue for their semifinal until after the conclusion of India’s match against New Zealand on Sunday,” wrote BBC on Saturday.
“Were they (Australia and South Africa) to wait until Monday and only travel when the fixtures were confirmed, that would rule out the possibility of training in Dubai -– where India will have played all three group matches,” it added.
The report further added that a situation might arise where Australia might take a three-hour flight from Lahore to Dubai on Saturday, and then fly back on Monday if they do not meet India in the semifinal.
“Similarly, South Africa will fly to Dubai in the early hours of Sunday (after their last group match against England) and could return to Pakistan 24 hours later if they do not have to face India,” added the report.
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