If India has to pick one player who can trouble their batsmen the most — it has to be New Zealand skipper Mitchell Santner. After all, he has been excellent in the Champions Trophy 2025, where he has bagged seven wickets and his economy has been under 5 largely. On Slow and sluggish pitches of Dubai, he could just completely stop the run-flow in the middle-overs.
Rohit Sharma vs Mitchell Santner in Champions Trophy
That was the case in the India vs New Zealand group stage match too, on March 2, where he returned with figures of 1/41 only. And let’s us admit — that could be a major challenge for the Indian batters. So now, to counter that, Rohit Sharma was seen practicing some grounded shots at the nets on Saturday, that indicate, that he would be looking to rotate the strike-freely against Santner.
That could particularly be a good ploy by the Indian captain, who usually looks to give a quick start to the team at the top of the order. But the demands of the Champions Trophy final, perhaps are a little different. Santner in 24 ODIs vs India has only given runs at 4.75/over.. and that’s solid statement of what could follow on the day of the final. So, it just becomes all the more crucial for India, if not getting boundaries against him; at least the strike should be rotated properly.
Battle Ready, CT 2025 Final
Just for the record, Rohit Sharma vs Mitchell Santner has been a bit of a mixed bag so far in ODIs. While the Indian has gotten out twice to him, his strike-rate stands at 100, having scored 102 runs overall in as many deliveries. That includes a huge chunk of dots — 50, while 6 fours and 6 sixes have been hit.
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