India skipper Rohit Sharma lost yet another toss in the semifinal of ICC Champions Trophy against Australia in Dubai. Australia skipper Steve Smith opted to bat first as they made one change to their line-up with Cooper Connolly replacing Matt Short. Meanwhile, Rohit lost the toss for the 11th consecutive time, the streak that began back in November 2023 during the World Cup in India.
This is the joint-second longest streak as he equalled the Netherlands' Peter Borren, who had also lost 11 consecutive tosses from March 2011 to August 2013. Rohit is now close to Brian Lara's world record in this aspect who lost 12 consecutive tosses as the West Indies captain from October 1998 to May 1999.
If India end up winning the semi-final against Australia, there is every chance that Rohit Sharma will equal Lara's unwanted record of losing most consecutive tosses in the ODI format.
Captains to lose most consecutive tosses in ODIs
12 - Brian Lara (West Indies, October 1998 to May 1999)
11 - Peter Borren (Netherlands, March 2011 to August 2013)
11*- Rohit Sharma (India, November 2023 to March 2025)
"When you're in two minds, it's better to lose the toss. We've played three games here and each time it had something different in it. You can't really say this is how the pitch is going to play. The pitch keeps changing its nature. At the end of the day, you have to play good cricket and that's what we are focused on. We've played good cricket in all three games and that's what we'll look to do now. It's going to be challenging. The slower bowlers have come into play a lot, that's why we wanted same team," Rohit said at the toss.
Playing XIs
Australia (Playing XI): Cooper Connolly, Travis Head, Steven Smith(c), Marnus Labuschagne, Josh Inglis(w), Alex Carey, Glenn Maxwell, Ben Dwarshuis, Nathan Ellis, Adam Zampa, Tanveer Sangha
India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, KL Rahul(w), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy