Rohit Sharam led India are all set to face off against New Zealand for their final league stage clash of the Champions Trophy. With both teams already qualifying for the semi-finals, it is expected that they would want to test out their bench strength today.
What’s at stake for India vs New Zealand victors today?
The match is more or less dead rubble with no significant impact on any team going forward. However, going into the semi-final stage, both India and New Zealand will want to win the last game and go in undefeated.
Moreover, today’s match will also decided who plays whom in the semi-finals. The victor of today’s match will face off against the Aussies while the loser will face off against South Africa.
Sunil Gavaskar on India’s semi-final opponents:
Given the choice between Australia and South Africa which team would India want to face in the semi-finals, Gavaskar told India Today, “Both teams are formidable teams, make no mistake. There’s no such team that India will say, because now they know, they’ve come to the knockout stages. Here it’s now make or break, so I don’t think they would prefer to have any team. Maybe Australia because they’ve played Australia, they know Australia a little bit better than South Africa, whom they last played in the T20 World Cup 2024 final. So maybe they might prefer Australia because they are without their main bowlers. There’s no Starc, Cummins and Hazlewood so maybe they would want to play them,”
Notably, South Africa are currently on top of the Champions Trophy Group B leader board after handing a thumping 7 wicket victory to England in their last league stage match of the tournament.
Australia finished in the second spot with 3 points to their name after their two back to back matches were washed off due to rain – first one against South Africa and later against Afghanistan.
