Follow UsNew Zealand captain Mitchell Santner has opted to bat first in the final group stage fixture of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 against India in Dubai. This will be Virat Kohli's 300th One-day International (ODI) appearance, the seventh Indian player to achieve this feat.
Moreover, this is the 13th consecutive toss India have lost in ODIs, and Rohit Sharma has lost 10 of them.
Both sides have made one change apiece. New Zealand have roped in Daryl Mitchell for Devon Conway. That could pave way fro Rachin Ravindra to open the innings with Will Young. India, on the other hand, have got in Varun Chakravarthy for Harshit Rana.
Both India and New Zealand qualified for the semi-final. This match will determine who will will finsh top of group A.
The winner of this match will take on Australia in the semi-final, while the other team will take on South Africa. Regardless, India will play their match in Dubai, while the other two sides will play in Lahore.
India: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, KL Rahul (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy
New Zealand: Will Young, Rachin Ravindra, Kane Williamson, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham (wk), Glenn Phillips, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner (c), Matt Henry, Kyle Jamieson, William ORourke
Rohit Sharma (India): Was anyway looking to bat first, wanted to see what we could do upfront and then challenge our bowlers since we chased on both games. Approach will be very similar to the previous games, just trying to do the same things. One change for us - Harshit has been rested, Varun is playing for us. It is all about bowling in partnerships, in both games we have combined to pick 19 wickets. Our spinners have restricted them well and then the seamers have got the wickets.
Mitchell Santner (New Zealand): We'll have a bowl first, looks like a good wicket. Want to put some pressure early and hopefully it skids on well later. We still want to win, we know we are going to be in Lahore later but first task is to do a job here, and challenge ourselves in different conditions. Daryl Mitchell comes in, Conway misses this one.
The leg side is shorter for the right-handers, and it is a longer hit down the ground. The weather is great out here; it is just 24 degrees. This is a black soil pitch from Pakistan, pretty dry and will help spinners initially, but later on it comes on better as the lights come on. The economy rate of the spinners is better, but the Pacers have picked more wickets.