Dubai
The Champions Trophy 2025 tournament was played in the hybrid model. The Indian team did not go due to Pakistan security reasons and non -approval of the government. For this reason, India played all their matches in Nutral Venue Dubai. Now the Champions Trophy final will be held on 9 March at Dubai International Stadium between India and New Zealand.
The statement of many cricketers from England and Australia came in Dubai about India’s play. All of them said in unison that India has got the benefit of playing on the same venue. Recently, Indian captain Rohit Sharma had said that he was playing in Dubai, who is not his home. But now before the final of the Champions Trophy, New Zealand captain has also come to Dubai’s statement.
New Zealand captain Michhel Santner said that India is a ‘family’ with a slow pitch of Dubai. Along with this, he also said that his team is ready for “Sangharsh” in the final of the Champions Trophy. The Kiwi team reached Dubai on Thursday evening before the final match against India on 9 March.
Santner said- He (India) has played all his games in Dubai and he knows that surface. Obviously, the surface will decide to some extent how we want to play. It may slow down slightly from the pitch found in Lahore. But we are ready for struggle.
Santner said that the New Zealand group can take some consolation from his experience of playing against India during the round. India defeated New Zealand by 44 runs in Group A match. He said- We are playing against a good team. I think we will perform better than the demonstrations that we performed against him (3–0 in the Test series) against him. We have performed a little well. Hopefully it will continue.
New Zealand had to visit Pakistan and Dubai within a short time for the semi-finals and finals. On this, the left -handed spinner captain said that the team has kept pace with busy schedule in the last few days.
Santner said- This is the experience of this tournament, where you had to move a lot. This is all challenge. I think players understand that this is part of all these sports. As long as you are ready for the game, everything is fine.
India’s squad for the Champions Trophy: Rohit Sharma (captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Akshar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarti
Squad of New Zealand for Champions Trophy: Mitchell Santner (Captain), Michael Bracewell, Mark Chapman, Devon Conway, Matt Henry, Tom Latham, Deril Michel, William Verorke, Glenn Philips, Rachin Rabindra, Nathan Smith, Ken Williamson, Williamson, Williamson, Williamson, Williamson, Williamson, Williamson, Williamson, Williamson