Predicting the 4 semi-finalists of the Champions Trophy

#3 India

The defending champions of the tournament will once again walk into it with the tag of being the favorites. There is no doubt that the Indian team raises its game a few notches when it comes to ICC events. They won the 2011 ODI World Cup and the 2013 Champions Trophy, were the runners-up in 2014 World T20 and the semi-finalists in the 2015 ODI World Cup and 2016 World T20. Their record is staggering in the ICC events in the past few years and would be expected to do well this year too.

The batting unit is flooded with experience. Shikhar Dhawan was the highest scorer in the previous edition and has made it to the squad again. Rohit Sharma is another giant in the ODI format with a tremendous record. The captain Virat Kohli struggled for form recently but he is too good a player to miss out for long. Then Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni will bring in the experience of over a decade which is priceless in a big tournament. Kedar Jadhav has shown signs of being the potential finisher in the recent past.

The Indian team once used to be heavily reliant on the batting but this time around, they have a number of world class bowlers who can compete with the best in the world. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah will give huge worries for the team management to leave out from them. All the pacers are equally capable of bowling with the new ball as well as at the death. Hardik Pandya will provide the supporting role with his pace bowling. Finally, they have two of the best spinners in the world in the form of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.

Ajinkya Rahane and Dinesh Karthik will find it hard to break into the playing XI but both are capable of making an immediate impact if they are picked. India seem to have all the bases covered and would make it hard for any other opposition to snatch the trophy from them.