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

03/01/2025 11:00 PM

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

Huge image: Kohli joins 300 membership

Scroll all the way down to the shape information part. Truly, no want, as a result of, spoiler warning, each groups have WWWWW subsequent to them going into this match. These are two distinctive ODI outfits in doubtlessly title-winning kind, deep and balanced because of the allrounders they possess. They’re significantly well-suited to situations at this Champions Trophy – significantly, maybe, to these in Dubai the place this contest will happen – because of their spin choices and the number of batting gears of their high orders.

There has additionally been, particularly over the past 5 years and a bit, numerous historical past between these two groups.

This could, for all these causes, be a main-course type of contest, but it surely’s an appetiser within the context of the place this Champions Trophy stands. India and New Zealand are each via to the semi-finals, and know precisely the place and when their respective semi-finals might be performed. All that is still to be determined is whom they’re going to face there, and it is unlikely there is a “most well-liked” opponent for both staff, given it is a alternative between South Africa and Australia.

With that in thoughts, and the quick turnaround earlier than the semi-finals – significantly within the case of India, who solely have a one-day hole earlier than their sport on March 4 – Sunday night time’s contest might not essentially be performed at vein-throbbing depth. There’s an opportunity of massive names resting, and likewise – as India’s assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate suggested on Friday – of key bowlers not finishing their full 10-over quotas.

There’s one man whose depth is rarely in need of vein-throbbing when he is on the sector, although, and he is set to play a really particular match. Virat Kohli is about to play his three hundredth ODI, changing into the twenty second participant and seventh from India to get to that landmark. Given how occasionally ODIs at the moment are performed, and given how far-off Kohli’s closest contemporaries are – Mushfiqur Rahim (274) and Rohit Sharma (272) are the one two to have performed greater than 250 – will he even be the final to get there?

Kind information

India WWWWW (final 5 ODIs, most up-to-date first)
New Zealand WWWWW

Within the highlight: Shreyas Iyer and Kyle Jamieson

India’s batting is but to face a very daunting check on this Champions Trophy. They’ve batted second in each their video games up to now, and chased down targets of 229 and 242. Whether or not they bat first or second on Sunday, they’re likelier to face a stiffer problem from New Zealand, significantly from their fingerspinners Mitchell Santner and Michael Bracewell via the center overs. It’s maybe on this context that Shreyas Iyer turns into particularly necessary. The place Kohli and KL Rahul have gone at strike charges within the low 80s towards spin within the center overs because the begin of 2023, Iyer has struck at 95.24. New Zealand know the way harmful Iyer is towards spin – he hit 5 sixes whereas scoring 48 off 35 balls towards their spinners throughout his century within the Mumbai World Cup semi-final of 2023.

If the Kohli era is India’s golden era, it in all probability peaked across the time of the inaugural World Take a look at Championship of 2019-21. And it is fairly attainable that India may have won that trophy had they not occurred to run into Kyle Jamieson. This towering and massively gifted fast-bowling allrounder has gone via a testing time since then, largely as a consequence of harm, and he is now set to face India for the primary time in any format since December 2021. Jamieson hasn’t but had the identical affect in ODIs that he has had in Exams; may the sight of his favorite opponents convey out his greatest?

Staff information: Daryl Mitchell match, however the place does he slot in?

India solely have a day’s hole between this match and their semi-final, however had a six-day hole between their earlier match, towards Pakistan, and this one. Do they imagine, then, that their key gamers are adequately rested for 200 overs over three days? Or do they relaxation one or two of them? And what of the gamers on the bench, and their match-readiness ought to they out of the blue be required in a knockout sport? Rohit Sharma and Mohammed Shami went off the sector with niggles at varied phases throughout the Pakistan sport, however each, in keeping with the staff’s press-conference representatives, are match.

India did not practice on Saturday, however Rishabh Pant had an prolonged session within the nets on Friday, which suggests he may get a sport – he has solely performed one ODI, again in July 2024, since his return from accidents suffered throughout his automobile crash. On condition that as many as 5 left-hand batters may function in New Zealand’s high eight, there’s an opportunity India might change certainly one of their two left-arm fingerspinners with the offspinner Washington Sundar. If Pant performs and provides his left-handedness to India’s high 5, it relieves them of the necessity for Axar Patel as a floater.

India (possible): 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 match once more after lacking the match against Bangladesh with an sickness, and this leaves New Zealand with a significant top-order headache. Rachin Ravindra, who was himself getting back from harm, changed Mitchell and scored a match-winning hundred towards Bangladesh, and Will Younger, who had taken Ravindra’s place on the high of the order, scored 100 within the tournament-opener against Pakistan. Devon Conway, the opposite opener, has additionally been among the many runs, scoring 97 against South Africa within the tri-series that preceded the Champions Trophy.

New Zealand (possible): 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 situations: spin to win?

Dubai has been the most spin-friendly of the 4 Champions Trophy venues, with spinners at present returning a mean of 37.07 and an economic system charge of 4.36 right here. Rawalpindi is second on each counts, at 40.60 and 4.81.

This, after all, can also have one thing do to with the standard of India’s spinners. In any case, the pitches in Dubai, removed from being sq. turners, have tended to be merely sluggish, with the big outfield additionally serving as an ally to the slower bowlers.

Bangladesh and Pakistan each received the toss towards India and selected to bat, reflecting the pattern for dew to not be a lot of an element right now of the yr. It is attainable that bat-first should still be the way in which to go, given the tendency for the pitches right here to decelerate over 100 overs.

A transparent, nice day is predicted on Sunday, with a most temperature of 24 levels Celsius.

Stats and trivia

India and New Zealand have solely met as soon as earlier than within the Champions Trophy: the final in 2000 when an unbeaten Chris Cairns century led New Zealand to a four-wicket win.
India have received every of their last five completed ODIs towards New Zealand; New Zealand received 5 in a row earlier than that stretch.
Tom Latham’s unbeaten 118 made all of the headlines, however he additionally loved an enormous second on the sector throughout New Zealand’s tournament-opener towards Pakistan: the catch of Shaheen Shah Afridi, off Matt Henry, was his one hundredth as wicketkeeper in ODIs.

Quotes

“That is numerous ODI video games and numerous worldwide video games and yeah, he is been… I imply, phrases fall quick to specific how good a participant he is been, and what an awesome servant of Indian cricket he is been.”
KL Rahul on Virat Kohli’s impending milestone

Karthik Krishnaswamy is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo