With the Champions Trophy title on the line, India and New Zealand face each other in the final at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. Having defeated Australia in the semifinal, India eye their third Champions Trophy title, while the Kiwis are looking for their second crown after beating South Africa in their last four clash.

New Zealand won the toss and opted to bat first. They made a forced change as Matt Henry was ruled out due to the shoulder injury he picked up in the semifinal against South Africa. Mitchell Santner confirmed the change in the team at the toss.

“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, I expected a few blue shirts, a great atmosphere, and 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 at the toss.

Meanwhile, India skipper Rohit Sharma stated that he does not mind batting first or second. He also confirmed that there was no change in the Indian team for the final. “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 doit  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 toss.

India and New Zealand have met each other four times in ICC knockouts, with the Kiwis holding an upper hand over the Men in Blue with a 3-1 lead. New Zealand defeated the Indian team in the 2000 final and also in 2023.

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

India’s 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 Chakaravarthy