Hardik Pandya Ruled Out of Champions Trophy Final; New Big Hitter Likely to be Included

The Indian cricket team have reportedly suffered a major blow as star all-rounder Hardik Pandya has suffered an injury ahead of the upcoming Champions Trophy 2025 final between India and New Zealand.

Indian cricket team’s star all-rounder and an integral member of the team, Hardik Pandya suffered an injury while fielding during India’s semi-final clash against Australia few days back and he was also seen struggling when he came on to bat. Now there looms a major concerns over the all-rounder’s availability for the big match.

Hardik has played a crucial role in the tournament so far with ball and bat and his absence could be a big miss for the Men in Blue. Hardik is said to be a big injury prone player and if the reports are to be believed, team management could even decide to drop the all-rounder to safeguard him, although there is no confirmation on the same yet from the BCCI.

Shivam Dube could be called-up as an option for Hardik Pandya

Reports suggests that reserve player Shivam Dube could be called-up to the team in case Hardik Pandya is not fit enough to play. Shivam Dube was named as one of the reserve player for the tournament.

However, key here is the fact that Shivam Dube is still in India after the BCCI announced pre-tournament that no reserve player would travel with the main team but would remain in India and train at National Cricket Academy (NCA) waiting for a call-up. Now the question here would be if Hardik is unable to play, how fast can BCCI take Dube to Dubai and get him ready to play the crucial final match.

India face New Zealand in Champions Trophy 2025 Final

Meanwhile, Team India beat rivals Australia in the semi-final 1 to qualify for the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 final and they will be taking on New Zealand, who beat South Africa in semi-final 2, on 9th March, Sunday.