CT 2025: Matt Henry misses out as New Zealand win toss; opt to bat first against India in final

DUBAI: New Zealand skipper Mitchell Santner won the toss and opted to bat first in the final of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 final against India at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Sunday.

At the time of the toss, Santner confirmed that Matt Henry has been ruled out of this game as he has not recovered from the injury which he got during the semi-final clash against South Africa.

India and New Zealand will vie for the ultimate glory at the ICC Champions Trophy 2025, meeting in the summit clash on Sunday, 9 March in Dubai.
India have had a seamless run to the final, remaining unbeaten. They bested Australia in the semi-final to punch their ticket for the final.

Despite their loss against India in the group stage, New Zealand have also been impressive in all departments and arrive in the final on the back of a comprehensive win over South Africa in the final four.

“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.

Men in Blue skipper Rohit Sharma confirmed at the time of toss that that they are going with the same line-up which played the last match.

“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 and 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.

Teams:

New Zealand (Playing XI): Will Young, Rachin Ravindra, Kane Williamson, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham (wk), Glenn Phillips, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner (c), Kyle Jamieson, William ORourke, Nathan Smith

India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, KL Rahul (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy. (ANI)