Is Mohammed Shami playing today’s IND vs NZ 2025 Champions Trophy match?

Team India's veteran seamer Mohammed Shami is part of the Men in Blue's playing XI for their 2025 Champions Trophy 2025 match against New Zealand. The game is being played at the Dubai International Stadium on Sunday, March 2.

Ahead of the encounter, a few reports emerged suggesting that Shami could be rested for the match against New Zealand. The senior fast bowler suffered an injury scare in the side's previous clash with Pakistan last week, which led to him even leaving the field for a brief period.

However, much to the delight of the Indian fans, Shami seems to have recovered from what seemed to be a niggle. He will lead the side's pace attack against the BlackCaps. It is the final group-stage fixture of the ICC event.

Both India and New Zealand have already qualified for the 2025 Champions Trophy semifinals. The winner of the encounter will finish as the table-toppers of Group A and take on Australia in the semifinals. The losing team will square off against South Africa, the table-toppers of Group B.

Mitchell Santner won the toss for New Zealand and elected to field first. Here are the two playing XIs for the contest:

IND: Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, KL Rahul(w), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy.

NZ: Will Young, Rachin Ravindra, Kane Williamson, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham(w), Glenn Phillips, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner(c), Matt Henry, Kyle Jamieson, William O'Rourke.

---

Mohammed Shami is India's leading wicket-taker in 2025 Champions Trophy

With speedster Jasprit Bumrah ruled out of the 2025 Champions Trophy, the onus is on Mohammed Shami to spearhead India's bowling attack at the marquee tournament. He rose to the occasion, bagging a stunning five-wicket haul in the side's opening match against Bangladesh.

It was Shami's sixth fifer in the format. He registered stunning figures of 10-0-53-5. The 34-year-old remained wicketless in the subsequent match with Pakistan. With five wickets from two outings, he is India's leading wicket-taker so far in 2025 Champions Trophy.

The last time the seamer played against New Zealand was during the 2023 ODI World Cup semifinal. He ran riot in the crucial encounter, registering a career-best seven-wicket haul.