🏏ICC Champions Trophy 2025: India vs NZ, Match 12, Group A🏏

🏏ICC Champions Trophy 2025: India vs NZ Match 12, Group A at Dubai on 02/03/2025 at 2:30 PM IST🏏

In-form India and New Zealand face off to see who they will meet in the semis

Both are exceptional ODI outfits, coming in with a string of wins to their name. Both will also already have one eye on their respective semi-finals, which quickly follow Sunday's game

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?

Prediction game form for the match between India and NZ

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Format for predictions

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-Winning Team -- 5 points --

-Man of the Match -- 15 points --

-Hit the most 4s -- 10 Points --

-Hit the most 6s -- 10 points --

-Taking the majority of wickets -- 10 points --

-Making the most runs -- 10 points --

Team News:

India

India may opt to make a couple of changes, though it remains unclear whether they will rest skipper Rohit Sharma. The captain is nursing a hamstring injury, but he appeared to be fine on Friday night after batting for an extended period. Mohammed Shami could make way for Arshdeep Singh, with Varun Chakravarthy potentially coming in for Kuldeep Yadav.

Playing XI: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy

New Zealand

The already-qualified Black Caps too will be tempted to give players carrying niggles a breather before the knockouts. That said, Daryl Mitchell, is fit again after missing the Bangladesh game with illness. Who he replaces in the XI will be a dilemma for Santner and Stead given the player who replaced Mitchell, Rachin Ravindra, hit a fine hundred. Incidentally, Ravindra, who was injured before his return against Bangladesh, was replaced by Will Young, who also has a century in this tournament.

Playing XI: Will Young, Devon Conway, Kane Williamson, Rachin Ravindra, Tom Latham (wk), Glenn Phillips, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner (c), Matt Henry, Kyle Jamieson, William O'Rourke.

Did you know?

- Virat Kohli will be playing in 300th ODI on Sunday. He had scored a century in his 200th ODI appearance - against the same opponent - in 2017.

- New Zealand seamers have amongst the highest release points in the competition and in all likelihood will challenge Shreyas Iyer with the short ball. Recently, he has been more than up to the challenge though.

- Despite being the only side without a wrist spinner in their squad, NZ sit atop the spin charts. Mitchell Santner and Michael Bracewell have extracted the most turn among all the spinners in CT 2025 thus far, with more than a third of their deliveries turning over 4.5 degrees.

- Michael Bracewell is the leading wicket taker among spinners with five with more than 70% of his balls being dots.

What they said:

"No game is easy, or no team can be taken lightly. New Zealand has always been a very formidable team and very competitive team. They've done really well over the years. We've had a lot of, we've played against them a lot of times at ICC events as well. And they've done well against us. It's been quite an even contest. I think it'll be another competitive game." - KL Rahul

"We don't like to put too much pressure on ourselves. Obviously, coming off a great Test series win, it gives us a lot of confidence that we can [win again] and we've got a really good record against India in ICC events. We try not to let the moment get to us. It's worked well for us in the past." - Michael Bracewell

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?

In a telling remark about Indian cricket last year, Stephen Fleming had said: "Looking at the amount of talent that is on the show... I am very jealous." The former New Zealand skipper was comparing the talent in India with the resources in New Zealand. He was reminded that New Zealand still constantly manage to beat India in global events. He just shrugged it off with a laugh.

It is no laughing matter, of course. The numbers speak for themselves. A 5-10 record in global tournaments, including a win in the World Test Championship (WTC) final, skews the balance heavily in the favour of the Black Caps. New Zealand also triumphed in the only face-off in this competition, back in the final of the ICC Knockout 2000. Sunday's clash in the 2025 Champions Trophy will not affect qualification - both teams are already through - but it'll decide which of these teams finish top of Group A and carry momentum with them into the knockouts.

There may be an underlying reason for New Zealand's dominance despite the lack of resources. Without the pressure of constant competition, the Kiwis play with a sense of security - they don't have to prove themselves every day to retain their spots, something KL Rahul touched upon ahead of the game. "There is - I won't lie," Rahul admitted, acknowledging the constant competition with Rishabh Pant, on Friday.

Mike Hesson, former coach of New Zealand, gave his take to Cricbuzz on the Black Caps hegemony. "Look, New Zealand players are really well-drilled, very well-coached. They all know their roles very clearly because there's not a huge amount of competition. They all know that they're not playing for their place every day. So they understand what's required to win the game, and they play as a team. And I think that's a huge advantage in tournament play.

"You don't get overawed. And in terms of, you know, India's superiority, obviously they've got a lot of talented players, but so do New Zealand... so I wouldn't underestimate them. And as I said, the key part of the Black Caps' success is understanding the role definitions and playing as a team on the field, obviously, throwing their body on the line in the field. So they've pretty much outfielded everybody, and I would imagine they'll do the same in the semifinal."

India, though, can count a victory in their last meeting on the world stage as a positive. They registered a convincing, comprehensive and clinical win in the semifinals of the 2023 World Cup in Mumbai where all in the current top order - Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, and KL Rahul - fired. India will aim to repeat that imperious display on Sunday.

India may try to give some game time to those who haven't played yet. Rohit batted for a long time on Friday night alleviating concerns of a hamstring niggle, yet it may not be a surprise if he decides to rest himself. Mohammed Shami, coming from a knee surgery, and Kuldeep Yadav could be given a break for Arshdeep Singh and Varun Chakaravarthy.

"I am sure there will be some temptation and we have been in these positions before where if there is an opportunity where you can try out the players who haven't gotten games. They do get a game, but I don't know if that will happen in a Champions Trophy," Rahul said on Friday. He then added: "This is my version. I don't know, it might be very different tomorrow."

It is unlikely that it'll be very different from what Rahul thinks.

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.

Thank you, Raji, for the thread and for tagging me.

It is a big match and the result will create some more interest!

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.