Ahead of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 final against New Zealand, Team India's head coach Gautam Gambhir outlined the reason behind shuffling the batting order and revealed that Axar's number five role allows him to express himself and exhibit his talent to the world. India will play New Zealand in the final of the ICC Champions Trophy on March 9 at the Dubai International Stadium. India is undefeated in the tournament so far, and the Kiwis have looked rock solid with bat and ball under Mitchell Santner's captaincy.
The clash promises to be an epic sequel to the 2000 ICC Champions Trophy final, which New Zealand won. India would like to avenge losses to the Blackcaps in the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup semifinal and 2021 ICC World Test Championship final.
India did not travel to Pakistan due to security reasons and played all their matches in Dubai, unlike other teams in the tournament who had to travel from Pakistan to Dubai and vice-versa during the league stage and semifinal for their matches. With teams having to adapt to different playing conditions, it has generated some controversy in cricketing circles, with ex-cricketers like Nasser Hussain and Michael Atherton being among the personalities having alleged that the scheduling offers an advantage to India because they have a massively reduced travel time, play at just one venue where they know the conditions well and selected their squad keeping Dubai in mind.
"We have answered it before that we don't care what people say. I think he's a quality player, and it is important. This is how cricket is meant to be played, and this is how we will play the sport. This is how we will continue playing the sport. We know the quality and ability Axar has, and we're going to
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