New Zealand Captain Mitchell Santner couldn’t confirm that the pace spearhead Matt Henry will be available for Sunday’s Champions Trophy final, but was convinced that they can tame India’s mysterious spinner Varun Chakravarthy.
The tournament’s leading wicket-taker Henry suffered a shoulder injury while taking a catch in the depth of the semi-finals against South Africa.
“Matt will have a dish just to see how he is doing,” Santner told journalists on Saturday. “I am assuming that we are calling it.”
India beat New Zealand in a group match in Dubai, where Chakravarthy claimed 5-42 with his bag with tricks that include off-break, leg break, Googly and ‘Carrom Ball’, which he pushes with his knuckle.
Santner expected India to field a four -shaped spin attack, which in turn preserved Chakravarthy, which burst out in a prominent character after impressing in the Indian Premier League.
“He is clearly a world-class bowler; we’ve seen this and obviously in IPL and the little bit of mystery,” Santner said in his first global tournament as New Zealand captain.
“But that was the first time some of the guys have faced him. I think they will learn from the other day.”
New Zealand fighters had seen several footage of Chakravarthy, but Santner thought India’s three other spinners could also prove a handful.
“If the tone plays a similar way, it will be a challenge with all three of their other spinners.
“I think we clearly know what his (Chakravarthy) threats are now. That 115 kilometers an hour of Armball got me – it was a bit of a threat.”
India enters the final at Dubai International Cricket Stadium as favorites and with their confidence Sky-High.
They have won all four of their matches at the eight-nation tournament, including beating New Zealand with 44 races in the group phase, although both teams had already reached the semi-finals at that time.
Rohit has played all their games in Dubai after refusing to visit the Champions Trophy host of Pakistan because of political tensions.
In front of them lies a New Zealand team in the hope of winning the tournament for the second time, after doing so in 2000 in what was the second edition of a competition compared to a mini -world championship.
India can be favorites and will have a lot of the crowd of the 25,000 capacity Dubai Stadium roaring them, but the recent story is actually with New Zealand.
They registered a surprise 3-0 test money laundering in India in October and November last year.
The black caps also have a clear advantage over India with nine wins, six losses and a non-result for global white ball tournaments.
