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New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner won the toss and opted to bat first in the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 final at Dubai International Cricket Stadium on March 9 against India. Santner replaced an injured Matt Henry by Nathan Smith. Henry who took a five-wicket haul against India in the group stage clash injured his shoulder during the semifinal clash against South Africa.
"We're going to have a bat first. Looks like a pretty good wicket, similar to the one we played India here a week ago. Want to get runs on the board and see what happens. Obviously expected a few blue shirts, great atmosphere, great ground. Going to be slightly different from what we got in Pakistan. We saw how India played and what they got out of it. Hope it slows down a bit later. Different guys have stepped up at different times. You want guys firing from the start and we have done that, as have India. Unfortunately Matt Henry has been ruled out, we've got Nathan Smith coming in," Santner said after winning the toss.
Rohit does not mind batting second in the final. He did not tinker with the winning combination.
"We've been here enough, batted first and bowled first, don't really mind batting second. It hasn't changed much, we've chased and won as well. It does give you a lot of confidence, takes the toss away from the game. At the end of the day, what matters is how well you want to play. That's what we've spoken about in the dressing room, not to worry about the toss and to just play well, that's what we've done and we have to do today as well. New Zealand have been a very good team over the past so many years, they tend to play good cricket in ICC tournaments. The challenge for us is to play well against them now. Same team for us," Rohit said at the coin toss.
Playing XIs:
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
New Zealand Playing XI: Will Young, Rachin Ravindra, Kane Williamson, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham(w), Glenn Phillips, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner(c), Nathan Smith, Kyle Jamieson, William ORourke
Head-to-head
India and New Zealand have gone up against each other 119 times in the format. India have won 61, lost 50, one ended in a tie whereas seven ended in no result.
The two teams have gone up against each other twice in Champions Trophy history. The first clash was in the 2000 edition's final. New Zealand beat India by four wickets. After nearly 25 years, India faced New Zealand in the group stage. India beat New Zealand by 44 runs as myster spinner Varun Chakravarthy claimed a five-wicket haul on his Champions Trophy debut.
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