Former Captain Wants India To Play 4 Spinners: 'Why Do You Need Harshit Rana?’

Former India captain and chief selector Kris Srikkanth wants India to field an unchanged line-up for the semi-final against Australia, and wants the side to continue with four spinners.

India played two specialist seamers in each of their first two Champions Trophy 2025 matches but dropped Harshit Rana for Varun Chakaravarthy against New Zealand. And that move proved to be a stroke of genius as Varun took a five-fer and ran through the Kiwi batters in sluggish Dubai conditions.

Srikkanth wants India to stick to the ‘spin it to win it’ strategy.

“I don’t understand, why do you need Harshit Rana? What wrong did Kuldeep Yadav and Varun Chakaravarthy do?,” Srikkanth said on his YouTube channel.

“Playing four spinners is a good idea, it’s actually a brilliant idea. The opponents do not know what to do. Australia have a pretty good batting line-up but even they’ll struggle against this Indian spin unit. Varun will spin a web around the Aussies.”

Srikkanth further predicted an easy Indian win, and believes Australia will struggle since they don’t have a strong bowling unit. The Aussies are missing all their first-choice seamers.

“India will surely beat Australia,” Srikkanth said.

“Australia don’t have a bowling attack, and I’m saying this from a pure cricketing angle. Australia’s bowling is very weak and Indian spinners are too good, and that’s why I feel India will triumph over Australia.”

It was in 2011 that the last time India beat Australia in a knockout game in an ICC event.