Matt Henry OUT As New Zealand Opt To Bat; India Unchanged For The Final

New Zealand have been dealt a body blow heading into the final of the Champions Trophy 2025 as their spearhead Matt Henry has been ruled out of the grand finale due to injury. Henry injured his shoulder in the semi-final against South Africa while taking the catch of Heinrich Klaasen, and the injury has now seen him miss the final.

It’s a devastating blow for the Kiwis as Henry has an outstanding record against India, having taken 21 wickets in 11 ODIs against the Men in Blue. In the group game last week, Henry took a five-fer (5/42) to rattle India up-front with the ball in hand.

All-rounder Nathan Smith takes the place of Henry in the BlackCaps’ XI.

India, meanwhile, are unchanged, meaning they will go with four spinners. In the group stage fixture last week at the very same venue, Varun Chakaravarthy bamboozled the Kiwis with a five-wicket haul of his own. This was yet another toss lost for India and Rohit Sharma.

While India lost their 15th consecutive toss in ODIs, the number extended to 12 for Rohit.

Playing XIs for India vs New Zealand, Champions Trophy 2025 final

India’s playing XI for Champions Trophy 2025 final

Rohit Sharma (capt), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, KL Rahul (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy

New Zealand’s playing XI for Champions Trophy 2025 final

Will Young, Rachin Ravindra, Kane Williamson, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham (wk), Glenn Phillips, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner (capt), Kyle Jamieson, William O'Rourke, Nathan Smith

What did the captains say

Mitchell Santner - "We're going to have a bat first. Looks like a pretty good wicket, similar to the one we played India here a week ago. Want to get runs on the board and see what happens. Obviously, I expected a few blue shirts, a great atmosphere, and great ground. Going to be slightly different from what we got in Pakistan. We saw how India played and what they got out of it. Hope it slows down a bit later. Different guys have stepped up at different times. You want guys firing from the start and we have done that, as have India."

Rohit Sharma - "We've been here enough, batted first and bowled first, don't really mind batting second. It hasn't changed much, we've chased and won as well. It does give you a lot of confidence, takes the toss away from the game. At the end of the day, what matters is how well you want to play. That's what we've spoken about in the dressing room, not to worry about the toss and to just play well, that's what we've done and we have to do today as well. New Zealand have been a very good team over the past so many years, they tend to play good cricket in ICC tournaments. The challenge for us is to play well against them now."

Dubai pitch report for India vs New Zealand, Champions Trophy 2025 final

"It is the same pitch as the one on which the India-Pakistan game was played. It is very dry, but rock hard. These patches won't break. Not a lot of turn and as the day goes on, the pitch will continue to wear. Batting first will be key. The teams will look to score 270 and above," says Aakash Chopra.