CT2025: New Zealand win toss; opt to bowl first against India in last group stage match

DUBAI: New Zealand skipper Mitchell Santner won the toss and elected to bowl first in their last group stage match against India at the ongoing ICC Champions Trophy 2025 at the Dubai International Stadium on Sunday.

The result of the fixture will also decide the teams that will face off in the semifinals, with South Africa and Australia having finished as the top-two sides in Group B.

New Zealand kicked off their campaign with a win against hosts Pakistan and then defeated Bangladesh to secure qualification for the next round. Pipped among the favourites to go all the way, India is also in red-hot form, having emerged victorious against Bangladesh and Pakistan.

India and New Zealand meet in the final #ChampionsTrophy group stage clash

Mitchell Santner wins the toss and opts to bowl first #NZvIND LIVE UPDATES https://t.co/F2UBD2cv49

— ICC (@ICC) March 2, 2025

“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 our job here is to do a job here. Daryl Mitchell comes in, and Conway misses this one”, Mitchell Santner said after winning the toss as quoted by Cricbuzz.

At the time of the toss, Men in Blue skipper Rohit Sharma said that the team had made one change for this match as they brought in Varun Chakravarthy in place of Harshit Rana.

“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. The approach will be very similar to the previous games, just trying to do the same things. One change for us — Harshit has been rested”, Rohit Sharma said.

Teams:

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), Matt Henry, Kyle Jamieson, William O’Rourke. (ANI)