New Zealand will be up against India in their respective final Group A match in the ongoing Champions Trophy. In such a short tournament, a week’s break felt unusually long but with the broadcasters having a say in the scheduling, both India and New Zealand had a couple of days to put their feet up and have ample time to rest, recover and be ready for another bout of a couple of quick matches since both have already qualified for the semi-finals. 

Then what’s the significance of this game? In larger context, very little since both teams have already advanced to the next stage but since the semi-final fixtures are yet to be known, it will be interesting as to whether both teams go full throttle or just take a breather, test their bench strength before the game. The loser of Sunday’s game will take on South Africa while the winner will be up against Australia. 

India have been phenomenal in the couple of games they have played. Despite the ‘advantage’ narrative, which is true to a certain extent, it shouldn’t take away from the fact that India played well with both bat and ball in the first two games but New Zealand, who are one of the top contenders, will pose a huge challenge to them. India have a couple of injury concerns and might even rest skipper Rohit Sharma, who seemed to be struggling with his hamstring after the Pakistan game.

My Dream11 team for ICC Champions Trophy Match 12, NZ vs IND

Shubman Gill (c), Virat Kohli, Devon Conway, Kane Williamson (vc), Shreyas Iyer, Rachin Ravindra, Axar Patel, Glenn Phillips, Michael Bracewell, Harshit Rana, William O’Rourke

Probable Playing XIs

India: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy

New Zealand: Will Young, Devon Conway, Kane Williamson, Rachin Ravindra, Tom Latham (wk), Glenn Phillips, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner (c), Matt Henry, Kyle Jamieson, William O’Rourke