Champions Trophy Final: India Look To Rise Above Spunky New Zealand, Emotional Bubble Around Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli

Successful in keeping opponents and vitriol at bay so far, India will have to rise above traditional bugbear New Zealand and a rigmarole of emotions surrounding stalwarts Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma to reclaim the Champions Trophy after 12 years here on Sunday. India have always found the resilient Kiwis a tall mountain to surmount, as the latter hold a 10-6 lead over their Asian rivals across all the ICC tournaments. If curated further, New Zealand have a 3-1 edge over India in the ICC knockout matches. It's a disturbing loop for them.

A section of the cricketing world has been vilifying them for the whole of last fortnight for having an unfair advantage because of their extended stay in Dubai.

Now, this argument will not have much merit to it because the Kiwis have already tasted the conditions here. India might still entertain a greater sense of comfort going into the title match, courtesy a spin quartet that showed enough nous to exploit a sluggish DICS deck.

In all probability, India will retain the four spinners and two pacers combination for the championship match.

The spin battle

Varun Chakravarthy and Kuldeep Yadav, the right-hand and left-hand wrist-spinners, have bamboozled the opponents like illusionists.

But Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel have been the metronomes in this Indian bowling unit, tying down the batters in a matrix of accuracy and boredom while leading them to self-destruction.

If the final is indeed going to be played on the surface that is used for the game between India and Pakistan, then those four bowlers can put New Zealand in a spin, literally.

Their biggest hopes of countering these Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse will be Kane Williamson and Rachin Ravindra, the most competent batters