India eye their third Champions Trophy title as they face New Zealand in the final on Sunday, March 9. The Indian team went with four spinners and two pace options in its previous two matches. Will India go with the same team or bring in any change for the final?
India and New Zealand are all set to face each other for the Champions Trophy glory in the final on Sunday, March 9 at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. The showdown is a rematch of the 2000 Champions Trophy final in which the Kiwis had defeated the Men in Blue to lift their maiden ICC title.
India will be looking to avenge the loss and lift their third Champions Trophy crown after sharing one in 2002 with Sri Lanka and winning one in 2013.
India will look to select their best XI which will give them a perfect shot to glory. The selection calls will surely be dependent on the playing surface for the final.
Will India go with four spinners or is there a look-in for someone else?
One major selection call that they will look to make is whether going with the same strategy of four spin-two pace attack that won them the previous two games or bring an extra pacer in place of a spinner.
Varun Chakravarthy’s outing against New Zealand in the group stage game against the same opponent in Kiwis makes him hard to drop. The other spinners in Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel, are also doing a fine job in the middle-overs.
The one who might face an axe can be Kuldeep, who might make way for a pacer (Harshit Rana or Arshdeep Singh) or possibly for Washington Sundar.
Barring this, there might be no change in the Playing XI for the final. The top seven looks much settled, with someone or the other putting their hands up to do the job for the team. Changing a combination in the final looks highly unlikely.
India’s Probable Playing XI for the Champions Trophy 2025 final?
Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy, Mohammed Shami
