Rohit Sharma equals Brian Lara’s record for consecutive tosses lost
IND vs NZ Final Champions Trophy 2025: Rohit Sharma, with his 12th straight toss loss, equalled former West Indies captain Brian Lara for losing the toss the most consecutive matches in men’s One Day Internationals. Rohit equalled the unwanted record as Mitchell Santner called it right and said New Zealand will bat first in the ICC Champions Trophy final. As the call fell in favour of Santner, Rohit had a wry smile on his face as he stepped aside for the NZ captain’s chat with Ravi Shastri.
The last time India won a toss in men’s ODIs was in the semifinal of the 2023 World Cup against New Zealand at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. The toss-loss streak of 15 for India is already the longest in this format for countries, with the second worst streak among teams belonging to the Netherlands at 11.
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“We’ve been here enough, batted first and bowled first, don’t really mind batting second,” Rohit said at the toss. “It hasn’t changed much, we’ve chased and won as well. It does give you a lot of confidence, takes the toss away from the game. At the end of the day, what matters is how well you want to play. That’s what we’ve spoken about in the dressing room, not to worry about the toss and to just play well, that’s what we’ve done and we have to do today as well.”
New Zealand were dealt a blow ahead of the final as Matt Henry didn’t come through a fitness test for his shoulder injury that he picked up while taking a catch during the semifinal against South Africa in Lahore. Nathan Smith came in as his replacement.
Playing XIs:
INDIA: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, KL Rahul (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy
NEW ZEALAND: Will Young, Rachin Ravindra, Kane Williamson, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham (wk), Glenn Phillips, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner(c), Kyle Jamieson, William ORourke, Nathan Smith
