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Rohit Sharma-led Team India is taking on New Zealand in their final group stage match of the ongoing ICC Men’s Champions Trophy at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium in Dubai. Although, India and New Zealand have already earned a qualification in the semi-finals of the marquee tournament, but the match will decide their opponents for the knockout stage, which is scheduled to take place on February 4 and 5.
As the two skippers in Rohit Sharma and Mitchell Santner took the field in Dubai for the toss, the Indian captain called for it, but once again lost it, making it 13th straight toss defeats for India in ODIs since their last toss victory in the 2023 ODI World Cup. Although, the toss might not have gone his way, Rohit Sharma was asked for the team combination in the final match.
Varun Chakravarthy replaces Harshit Rana in India’s Playing XI vs New Zealand
After going down against New Zealand at the toss, Rohit Sharma said, “Was anyway looking to bat first, wanted to see what we could do upfront and then challenge our bowlers since we chased on both games. Approach will be very similar to the previous games, just trying to do the same things.” On being asked of the team combination, the 37-year-old said, “One change for us - Harshit has been rested, Varun is playing for us. It is all about bowling in partnerships, in both games we have combined to pick 19 wickets. Our spinners have restricted them well and then the seamers have got the wickets.”
New Zealand vs India Group A Playing XI
New Zealand: Will Young, Rachin Ravindra, Kane Williamson, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham (wk), Glenn Phillips, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner(c), Matt Henry, Kyle Jamieson, William ORourke
India: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, KL Rahul (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy
