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Champions Trophy 2024/25, IND vs NZ 12th Match, Group A Match Preview

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Contents
Big picture: Kohli joins 300 clubForm guideIn the spotlight: Shreyas Iyer and Kyle JamiesonTeam news: Daryl Mitchell fit, but where does he fit in?Pitch and conditions: spin to win?Stats and triviaQuotes

Big picture: Kohli joins 300 club

Scroll down to the form guide section. Actually, no need, because, spoiler warning, both teams have WWWWW next to them going into this match. These are two exceptional ODI outfits in potentially title-winning form, deep and balanced thanks to the allrounders they possess. They’re particularly well-suited to conditions at this Champions Trophy – particularly, perhaps, to those in Dubai where this contest will take place – thanks to their spin options and the variety of batting gears in their top orders.

There has also been, especially over the last five years and a bit, a lot of history between these two teams.

This should, for all those reasons, be a main-course kind of contest, but it’s an appetiser in the context of where this Champions Trophy stands. India and New Zealand are both through to the semi-finals, and know exactly where and when their respective semi-finals will be played. All that remains to be decided is whom they’ll face there, and it’s unlikely there’s a “preferred” opponent for either team, given it’s a choice between South Africa and Australia.

With that in mind, and the short turnaround before the semi-finals – particularly in the case of India, who only have a one-day gap before their game on March 4 – Sunday night’s contest may not necessarily be played at vein-throbbing intensity. There’s a chance of big names resting, and also – as India’s assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate suggested on Friday – of key bowlers not completing their full 10-over quotas.

There’s one man whose intensity is never short of vein-throbbing when he’s on the field, though, and he’s set to play a very special match. Virat Kohli is set to play his 300th ODI, becoming the 22nd player and seventh from India to get to that landmark. Given how infrequently ODIs are now played, and given how far away Kohli’s closest contemporaries are – Mushfiqur Rahim (274) and Rohit Sharma (272) are the only two to have played more than 250 – will he also be the last to get there?

Form guide

India WWWWW (last five ODIs, most recent first)
New Zealand WWWWW

In the spotlight: Shreyas Iyer and Kyle Jamieson

India’s batting is yet to face a truly daunting test in this Champions Trophy. They have batted second in both their games so far, and chased down targets of 229 and 242. Whether they bat first or second on Sunday, they’re likelier to face a stiffer challenge from New Zealand, particularly from their fingerspinners Mitchell Santner and Michael Bracewell through the middle overs. It is perhaps in this context that Shreyas Iyer becomes especially important. Where Kohli and KL Rahul have gone at strike rates in the low 80s against spin in the middle overs since the start of 2023, Iyer has struck at 95.24. New Zealand know how dangerous Iyer is against spin – he hit five sixes while scoring 48 off 35 balls against their spinners during his century in the Mumbai World Cup semi-final of 2023.

If the Kohli generation is India’s golden generation, it probably peaked around the time of the inaugural World Test Championship of 2019-21. And it’s quite possible that India may have won that trophy had they not happened to run into Kyle Jamieson. This towering and hugely gifted fast-bowling allrounder has gone through a testing time since then, mostly due to injury, and he’s now set to face India for the first time in any format since December 2021. Jamieson hasn’t yet had the same impact in ODIs that he has had in Tests; could the sight of his favourite opponents bring out his best?

Team news: Daryl Mitchell fit, but where does he fit in?

India only have a day’s gap between this match and their semi-final, but had a six-day gap between their previous match, against Pakistan, and this one. Do they believe, then, that their key players are adequately rested for 200 overs over three days? Or do they rest one or two of them? And what of the players on the bench, and their match-readiness should they suddenly be required in a knockout game? Rohit Sharma and Mohammed Shami went off the field with niggles at various stages during the Pakistan game, but both, according to the team’s press-conference representatives, are fit.

India didn’t train on Saturday, but Rishabh Pant had an extended session in the nets on Friday, which suggests he could get a game – he has only played one ODI, back in July 2024, since his return from injuries suffered during his car crash. Given that as many as five left-hand batters could feature in New Zealand’s top eight, there’s a chance India may replace one of their two left-arm fingerspinners with the offspinner Washington Sundar. If Pant plays and adds his left-handedness to India’s top five, it relieves them of the need for Axar Patel as a floater.

India (probable): 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Shubman Gill, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Shreyas Iyer, 5 Rishabh Pant (wk), 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Washington Sundar, 9 Harshit Rana, 10 Kuldeep Yadav/Varun Chakravarthy, 11 Mohammed Shami/Arshdeep Singh.

Daryl Mitchell is fit again after missing the match against Bangladesh with an illness, and this leaves New Zealand with a major top-order headache. Rachin Ravindra, who was himself returning from injury, replaced Mitchell and scored a match-winning hundred against Bangladesh, and Will Young, who had taken Ravindra’s place at the top of the order, scored a hundred in the tournament-opener against Pakistan. Devon Conway, the other opener, has also been among the runs, scoring 97 against South Africa in the tri-series that preceded the Champions Trophy.

New Zealand (probable): 1 Devon Conway, 2 Rachin Ravindra, 3 Kane Williamson, 4 Daryl Mitchell, 5 Tom Latham (wk), 6 Glenn Phillips, 7 Michael Bracewell, 8 Mitchell Santner (capt), 9 Kyle Jamieson, 10 Matt Henry, 11 Will O’Rourke.

Pitch and conditions: spin to win?

Dubai has been the most spin-friendly of the four Champions Trophy venues, with spinners currently returning an average of 37.07 and an economy rate of 4.36 here. Rawalpindi is second on both counts, at 40.60 and 4.81.

This, of course, may also have something do to with the quality of India’s spinners. In any case, the pitches in Dubai, far from being square turners, have tended to be merely slow, with the large outfield also serving as an ally to the slower bowlers.

Bangladesh and Pakistan both won the toss against India and chose to bat, reflecting the trend for dew not to be much of a factor at this time of the year. It’s possible that bat-first may still be the way to go, given the tendency for the pitches here to slow down over 100 overs.

A clear, pleasant day is expected on Sunday, with a maximum temperature of 24 degrees Celsius.

Stats and trivia

  • India and New Zealand have only met once before in the Champions Trophy: the final in 2000 when an unbeaten Chris Cairns century led New Zealand to a four-wicket win.
  • India have won each of their last five completed ODIs against New Zealand; New Zealand won five in a row before that stretch.
  • Tom Latham’s unbeaten 118 made all the headlines, but he also enjoyed a big moment on the field during New Zealand’s tournament-opener against Pakistan: the catch of Shaheen Shah Afridi, off Matt Henry, was his 100th as wicketkeeper in ODIs.

Quotes

“That’s a lot of ODI games and a lot of international games and yeah, he’s been… I mean, words fall short to express how good a player he’s been, and what a great servant of Indian cricket he’s been.”
KL Rahul on Virat Kohli’s impending milestone

Karthik Krishnaswamy is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo

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