India vs New Zealand Champions Trophy 2025 Final: SWOT Analysis Of Mitchell Santner And Co

On December 18, 2024, Mitchell Santner took charge as New Zealand's white-ball captain, with his first major leadership assignment being the 2025 Champions Trophy. Cut to now, and Santner is now all set to lead the Blackcaps in the tournament's title clash against India in Dubai on Sunday. New Zealand has always been known as a side punching above their weight consistently in ICC tournaments and giving any opposition team a stiff challenge.

Here's a SWOT Analysis from IANS on the Santner-led New Zealand ahead of them playing the 2025 Champions Trophy final.

Strength: New Zealand's strength lies in both the batting and bowling departments. With the bat, Rachin Ravindra has been in prime form, as seen by his two centuries in the tournament. Kane Williamson has been at his premier best in the last two games, while Will Young, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham, and Glenn Phillips lend more strength to the Blackcaps batting line-up.

With the ball, Santner, Phillips, Ravindra and Michael Bracewell being present means their bases are covered in spin-bowling department. Their fielding is also top-notch, as seen from New Zealand being the best team in terms of catches efficiency in the tournament.

Weakness: Though New Zealand played the Group A match against India in Dubai, they lost by 44 runs after electing to bowl first. In that game, Matt Henry's 5-42 had helped them keep India to 249, but they were unable to chase it down. If Henry is unavailable due to shoulder issue, it weakens their fast-bowling line-up.

Barring Williamson's valiant 81, none of the batters could stick for a long time to complete the chase. It also didn't help that they were undone by mesmerising spin bowling of Varun Chakaravarthy, who also took 5-42. If a