As per a report from Cricbuzz, the 2025 Champions Trophy final between India and New Zealand on Sunday at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium will be played on a slow pitch with considerable assistance for the spinners on both sides-the same pitch used for the clash in the group stage between the Men in Blue and their rivals Pakistan last weekend. As the matches have proceeded, this pitch too is likely to be slow.
India won that match against Pakistan quite comfortably. The Men in Green led by Mohammad Rizwan won the toss and chose to bat first, only to end up with a total of 241 runs in 49.4 overs with the loss of all 10 wickets. The three Indian spinners shared five wickets between them while Hardik Pandya and Harshit Rana took two and one respectively.
India started fast against Pakistan with Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill racing to a quick 31-run stand. Neither opener got to his half-century, but Kohli’s unbeaten 100 (111) and Shreyas Iyer’s half-century helped India chase down the target with six wickets and over seven overs to spare. For Pakistan, Abrar Ahmed and Khushdil Shah took one wicket each and Shaheen Afridi took two.
Neither India nor New Zealand should have much of a bother on slow tracks, for the former had easy wins against the Black Caps when they had clashed in their final league-stage game of Group A over a sluggish 22 yards. Furthermore, India, having played three spinners against Pakistan, have since retained in-form Varun Chakkaravarty into the mix for Rana’s exclusion, the Kolkata Knight Riders ace shining with seven wickets in two matches.
The Black Caps have Mitchell Santner and Michael Bracewell, both of whom have had some success in this tournament as well, and now have part-timer Glenn Phillips to influence the contest.
As per PTI, the Indian batters have been working a lot with spin in the nets before Sunday’s final.
“Our batters can adjust on any surface. So that is the key. I think we can adjust to the wicket and obviously, if it is a 350 runs kind of wicket, we might go a little hard, obviously, as there will be pace on the wicket and ball comes on,” The news agency quoted Indian batting coach Sitanshu Kotak as saying.
“But on such a wicket (at the DICS), you try to rotate the strike and take the game deep and try later to try to hit home while chasing or to set the highest possible target if batting first. I think we have done that pretty well,” he said.
