Champions Cup 2025: Varun Chakaravarti Price R Ashvin Traavis terminará la cabeza

Travis Head overcame his slowest start in any one-day international to hit a rapid 39 before falling to mystery spinner Varun Chakaravarthy in the first semi-final of the Champions Trophy 2025 in Dubai on Tuesday.

R Ashwin, one of the greatest off-spinners in the game, had predicted his fellow Tamil Nadu cricketer to get the better of Travis Head and that’s exactly what he did.

Ashwin predicted Head’s fall

Varun Chakaravarthy had spun a web around New Zealand on Sunday, picking a five-wicket haul in the final group game of the Champions Trophy. He was therefore touted as a trump card by Rohit Sharma in the lead-up to the semi-finals and sure enough, Varun Chakaravarthy snared Head off the first ball he bowled to him as Shubman Gill completed a superb catch in the deep.

“New ball and give it to Varun and ask him to bowl over the stumps to Travis Head. Head shows all his three stumps and then clears his leg and hits it over the field. Varun Chakravarthy with a new ball might give India an edge. It will be a mouth-watering contest,” Ashwin said.

No more Head-ache

Travis Head battled to one off 10 balls before breaking the shackles against Hardik Pandya, smashing the all-rounder for a four and a six. He has been such a nemesis for India in ICC events that the moniker of HeadAche does not even sound cliché these days. It was Head who tormented India in the final of the World Test Championship 2023 and then a few months later in the final of the ODI World Cup.

The first semi-final of the Champions Trophy 2025, therefore, was billed as a contest between India and Travis Head as Australia were left without their entire frontline pace attack which won them the World Cup two years ago. After rookie opening batter Cooper Connolly fell for a duck to Mohammed Shami in the third over of the innings, Head took charge and unleashed some of his most storied shots, rarely showing any discomfort against pace or spin on a dry pitch. Luckily for Australia, Head was let off four times and the opening southpaw was only too happy to take full toll on the Indian bowlers. Luckily for India, they had a smart spinner in their ranks.

Back in November 2023, Head had hammered an aggressive 137 in a low-scoring World Cup final and months before that game, there was the magnificent 163 at the Oval in the final of the World Test Championship 2021-23. Head was named man-of-the-match in both those games and he was headed towards a similar innings on Tuesday before his stay was cut short by Varun Chakaravarthy.