"India playing bad today to avoid Travis Head in semi-finals" - Top 10 funny memes as India's top order collapses in 2025 CT clash vs New Zealand

Team India's top-order collapsed cheaply batting first in the ongoing 2025 Champions Trophy clash against New Zealand at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Sunday, March 2. This is the first time that the Men in Blue are batting first in the tournament, following two comfortable chases against Bangladesh and Pakistan, respectively.

New Zealand skipper Mitchell Santner won the toss and invited the opposition to bat first. They started well as Matt Henry dismissed Shubman Gill in the third over with an incoming delivery to give his side their first breakthrough. Rohit Sharma (15) and Virat Kohli (11) also followed Gill to the pavilion after getting off to positive starts. The veteran duo perished while trying to play with aggressive intent, which left Men in Blue at 30/3 in 6.4 overs.

Fans were disappointed to see the failures of India's famed top three batters in the last group game of the 2025 Champions Trophy. They expressed their reactions by sharing hilarious memes on X and Instagram. One post read:

"India playing bad today to avoid Travis Head in semi-finals."

Here are the top memes:

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"Was anyway looking to bat first, wanted to see what we could do upfront"- India captain Rohit Sharma after the toss ahead of 2025 Champions Trophy match vs New Zealand

Speaking after losing the toss, India skipper Rohit Sharma stated that they were looking to bat first to test themselves as they had chased in the previous two games. He said (via Cricbuzz):

"Was anyway looking to bat first, wanted to see what we could do upfront and then challenge our bowlers since we chased on both games. Approach will be very similar to the previous games, just trying to do the same things."

He continued:

"One change for us - Harshit has been rested, Varun is playing for us. It is all about bowling in partnerships, in both games we have combined to pick 19 wickets. Our spinners have restricted them well and then the seamers have got the wickets."

At the time of the writing, India had reached 84/3 in 21 overs with Shreyas Iyer and Axar Patel going strong.