In their final group stage match of the 2025 Champions Trophy, India left out Harshit Rana in favour of Varun Chakravarthy, playing four spinners in all.
New Zealand skipper Mitchell Santner won the toss and elected to field first in Dubai, extending India's world record of consecutive ODI tosses lost. Both sides had made one change each – Daryl Mitchell returned from a stomach bug to replace Devon Conway for the Black Caps, while India opted to hand mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy a Champions Trophy debut in place of speedster Harshit Rana.
Match 12, New Zealand vs India
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- Ball by ball Over
India play four spinners against New Zealand
At the toss, India captain Rohit Sharma said that Rana had been rested. The pacer has featured in all of India's last five international matches – the Champions Trophy games against Pakistan and Bangladesh, and the three-match home ODI series against England.
India had a pace option available on their bench in the form of left-arm seamer Arshdeep Singh, but opted to play Chakravarthy instead. They now have four frontline spin-bowling options in their XI – Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja are the other three.
The pitch in Dubai has been quite slow, and taken a bit of turn at times, proving favourable for the spinners. In addition, the wicket for this match initially appeared on the drier side, another factor that could aid spin. The boundaries at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium are also fairly large, meaning taking on slower bowling may not be the easiest task.
Also read: Why New Zealand are best-placed to counter India's middle-overs mastery
India used four spin bowlers in each of the three ODIs against Sri Lanka in August 2024 on extremely spin-friendly surfaces, but the fourth ones used were Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill and Riyan Parag – primarily batters.
Prior to that, the last time India bowled more than 30 overs of spin in an ODI was in the 2018 Asia Cup final against Bangladesh. Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja and Kedar Kadhav were the four spinners used on that occasion.
Playing XIs, India vs New Zealand, Champions Trophy 2025 match no. 12
India: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, KL Rahul (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Varun Chakravarthy.
New Zealand: Will Young, Rachin Ravindra, Kane Williamson, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham (wk), Glenn Phillips, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner (c), Matt Henry, Kyle Jamieson, Will O'Rourke.
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