New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner could not confirm that pace spearhead Matt Henry will be available for Sunday’s Champions Trophy final but was confident they can tame India’s mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy.
The tournament’s leading wicket-taker Henry suffered a shoulder injury while taking a catch in the deep in the semi-final against South Africa.
“Matt’s going to have a bowl just to see how he is,” Santner told reporters on Saturday. “I guess we’ll make a call after that.”
India beat New Zealand in a group match in Dubai where Chakravarthy claimed 5-42 with his bag of tricks that includes off-break, leg-break, googly and the ‘carrom ball’ that he pushes with his knuckle.
Santner expected India to field a four-pronged spin attack again retaining Chakravarthy, who burst into prominence after impressing in the Indian Premier League.
“He’s obviously a world-class bowler; we’ve seen it here and obviously in the IPL and that little bit of mystery,” Santner, in his first global tournament as New Zealand captain, said.
“But it was the first time some of the guys have been facing him. I think they’ll learn from the other day.”
New Zealand batters had seen more footage of Chakravarthy but Santner felt India’s three other spinners could also prove a handful.
“If the pitch plays a similar way it’s going to be a challenge along with all three of their other spinners.
“I think we obviously know what his (Chakravarthy) threats are now. That 115 kilometres per hour arm-ball that got me – that was a bit of a threat.”
India go into the final at Dubai International Cricket Stadium as favourites and with their confidence sky-high.
They have won all four of their matches at the eight-nation tournament, including beating New Zealand by 44 runs in the group phase, although both teams had already reached the semi-finals by then.
Rohit’s side have played all their games in Dubai after refusing to visit Champions Trophy hosts Pakistan because of political tensions.
In front of them lies a New Zealand team hoping to win the tournament for the second time, having done so in 2000 in what was the second edition of a competition likened to a mini World Cup.
India might be favourites and will have much of the crowd at the 25,000-capacity Dubai stadium roaring them on, but recent history is actually with New Zealand.
They registered a surprise 3-0 Test whitewash in India in October and November last year.
The Black Caps also hold a clear advantage over India with nine wins, six losses and one no-result at global white-ball tournaments.
