The Indian cricket team is set to take on New Zealand in the final of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025, which will be played at the Dubai International Stadium in the UAE on Sunday, March 9. After getting the better of the Black Caps in the Group A clash last weekend, India will be confident to deliver the goods once again in the biggest match of the tournament, which would allow them to clinch the coveted trophy for the third time in their history.
Here is the strongest predicted playing XI for India against New Zealand:
Openers: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill
Rohit Sharma, the captain of India, known for his attacking batting in the first power play stage, has kept the trend going during the Champions Trophy despite the pitches in Dubai not quite conducive for big hitting. Shubman Gill had started the tournament quite impressively with a hundred against Bangladesh, but he lost his wicket early against New Zealand and Australia in recent matches.
Middle Order: Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, KL Rahul (wk)
Virat Kohli is the leading run-scorer among Indian batters in the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 with 217 runs in four innings at an average of 72.33 and a strike-rate of 83.14 with one hundred against Pakistan. Shreyas Iyer has scored 195 runs in the tournament for India, bolstering the middle order of the team quite appreciably on surfaces in Dubai, which haven’t been easy for batting.
At number five position in the batting order, Axar Patel has scored some runs for the team, but more importantly, he has been exceptional with the ball and in the field. KL Rahul has a couple of vital innings to his name in the Indian middle order, while his wicket-keeping skills have been very reasonable under tough circumstances at the Dubai International Stadium with indifferent pace and bounce in pitches.
All-Rounders: Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja
Hardik Pandya played an indifferent innings in the semi-final of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 against Australia, facing a lot of dot balls before smashing a few sixes, to catch up on the strike-rate, while his bowling and fielding skills have been par for the course for India. Ravindra Jadeja has come into his own with the ball in hand as the Champions Trophy has gone on, picking up key wickets at key moments, to help ensure that the opposition are curtailed to a lower score.
Bowlers: Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy
Mohammed Shami gave his best performance of the Champions Trophy during the semi-final against Australia, where he was quite impeccable with his lines and lengths in the opening spell with the new ball, while his death bowling skills came to the floor later on. Kuldeep Yadav is still pushing hard to gain complete rhythm and consistency to his bowling, but his value to the Indian cricket team is immense on a Dubai surface conducive to the spinners.
Varun Chakravarthy has been a revelation in the last couple of matches in the tournament since getting drafted into the playing XI, and he could be the X-Factor for India in the final against New Zealand.
