Nasser Hussain, the former captain of England, has full faith that New Zealand will not ‘bottle it’ or choke with pressure on the Champions Trophy 2025 final on Sunday and India will have to play their best to overcome them. He said that the Kiwis are very tough cricketers and found that the finals were due to mistakes that were few and far between.
India has already seen that manifestation of Kiwi grit. From a small country with less than half the sports resources, New Zealand’s capable Indian teams have defeated great Indian sides in major contests like the 2019 World Cup semi-final and the 2021 World Test Championship final. Less than a couple of months ago, the New Zealand Test side also became the first ever to whitewash India at home in a series of two or more red-ball internationals.
“There, in the semi-finals, India had dealt with New Zealand in their last against them, winning by 44 runs,” he said. “They do have really experienced cricketers; however, given how tough they are over the entire New Zealand lineup, they will put in a performance every single match.”
New Zealand made it to the finals after pulling off a win over Bangladesh and Pakistan in the group stage and South Africa, the big guns of world cricket, in the semi-finals, just the other night.
India remains with an unblemished record in this tournament: they beat Bangladesh and Pakistan pretty easily and also managed a four-wicket win over Australia in the semi-finals, just the day before.
