Varun Chakaravarthy has taken the ongoing ICC Champions Trophy by storm. In just two matches, the mystery spinner picked seven wickets, including a five-wicket haul against New Zealand in the final group stage in Dubai. At the same venue and against the same opponents, Varun will be back in action, and the BlackCaps will have a massive task at their hands to play out his 10 overs.
New Zealand head coach Gary Stead is definitely expecting Varun to play in the final and has admitted that they are planning to neutralise him. "So, look, we certainly expect him to play after getting 5 for 42 against us in the last game. And yeah, we'll be planning our, I guess, intentions around that as well.
"There's no doubt he's a class bowler. He obviously showed his skills against us last time and he's a big, big threat in the game. So, we'll be putting our thinking caps on how we nullify that and how we can still score runs against him. I think when you have a wrist spinner like that, then you're looking for cues as a batsman. And I think it's always a little bit easier when you're in the daylight to see those things," he said.
Meanwhile, New Zealand are also sweating on the fitness of their fast bowler Matt Henry. He hurt his shoulder in the second semi-final while taking Heinrich Klaasen's catch. Henry went off the field and later came to bowl two more overs as well. But his fitness status is currently 'unknown', according to Stead.
"I guess the positive thing from our perspective is he (Henry) got back out there to bowl. We've had some scans and stuff done on him, and we're going to give him every chance to be playing in this match. [But it's] still a little bit unknown at this stage," Stead said.