Dinesh Karthik on India's key to success in Champions trophy semi-final: Dismissing Travis Head early

Dinesh Karthik has said that Australians have become India’s nemesis of late in ICC tournaments and that Travis Head falling early in the Champions Trophy 2025 semi-final will make things easy for the Indian cricket team. India take on Australia in the Champions Trophy 2025 semi-finals on Tuesday (4 March) in Dubai.

Team India is the form side in the Champions Trophy, having won all three matches in the group stage while Australia only clinched one and the remaining two got washed out. Still, Australia’s dominance over India in the ICC ODI tournaments, where they beat them in the 2023 ODI World Cup final as well, gives the Aussies a much-needed morale boost ahead of the semi-final.

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Former India batter Dinesh Karthik has said that Australia are turning out to be India’s “nemesis” in ICC knockout matches and have emerged as the only team that can challenge the Men in Blue on “most days”. He, however, added that India’s “mental block” against Australia is a result of just one player and that is Travis Head.

‘Head is difference between winning and losing’

Head had smashed a magnificent 137 in Ahmedabad in 2023 as India lost the 2023 ODI World Cup final. He also smashed India for 448 runs in the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

“It used to be New Zealand for a wee bit. In these knockout games, they always had the better of India, but you have to say it’s Australia at this point of time. If at all, there is a team that they would think that on most days they’ll challenge India has to be Australia. And it’s actually what Ravi Shastri said, you know, at this point of time, the mental block is more one player than Australia itself, Travis Head,” Karthik said on the Sky Sports podcast.

“He (Head) has actually, in any format. And they will be looking for that wicket because that wicket early will actually make them breathe a lot easier for the rest of the game, because World Test Championship Final, the recently concluded Australia Series, World Cup Final, you take any big game, he’s actually scored once. And he’s been the difference between winning and losing,” said Karthik.

Overall, Head has scored 345 runs against India in nine ODIs at an average of 43.12.