Why is Harshit Rana not playing Champions Trophy 25 match vs New Zealand?

New Zealand won the toss against India in the final group match of the Champions Trophy 2025 in Dubai on Sunday. The winner of the game will go to the top of the table and play Australia in the semi-finals. Both sides made one change each to their team as New Zealand got in Daryl Mitchell for opener Devon Conway. 

India, on the other hand, made one change, with Harshit Rana being rested for the match. Varun Chakravarthy, who made his debut against England in Cuttack, is set to play his second ODI match for India. Rana played in the game against Bangladesh and Pakistan has picked up four wickets from two games so far. Rohit revealed that Rana was rested as the team wanted to try a new combination. 

It is an interesting combination, as the Men in Blue are going in with four spin bowlers. Apart from Chakravarty, team India also have Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, and Axar Patel in their line-up. This will be the first time India will be batting first in the tournament, having chased in the two previous matches. 

Virat Kohli set to play his 300th ODI for India 

Former Indian skipper Virat Kohli has become the seventh Indian player to appear in 300 ODI matches. Sachin Tendulkar, with 463 ODI matches, heads the list for most appearances in the format. Other Indian players to achieve this feat are Rahul Dravid, Mohammad Azharuddin, Sourav Ganguly, MS Dhoni, and Yuvraj Singh. In fact, former India skipper Mohammad Azharuddin was the first player to reach the landmark. 

Yet another bright spot for India was that both Rohit Sharma and Mohammed Shami are playing the game. There were reports that the two players were reportedly under fitness concerns. In Rohit’s case, it was reported that the Indian skipper had suffered a hamstring niggle during the game against Pakistan. 

Speaking 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.”

New Zealand skipper Mitchell Santner said, “We'll have a bowl first; it looks like a good wicket. Want to put some pressure on early and hopefully it skids on well later. We still want to win; we know we are going to be in Lahore later but first task is to do a job here and challenge ourselves in different conditions.”