Birmingham: Shikhar Dhawan is set to bag the prestigious player of the tournament award at the ICC Champions Trophy. His tally of 332 runs in four innings is much ahead than any player in the competition.
His average of 110.67 is the highest by any batsman. The second best is England’s Jonathan Trott and he is far behind with 209 runs from four games at an average of 69.67.
Dhawan has scored two out of the three centuries in this tournament and has figured in three of the seven century stands in the tournament. Twice he did so with his opening partner Rohit Sharma and once with Dinesh Karthik.
The weather forecast says that chances of rain during the match are 50 per cent. It will be a windy afternoon with a temperature of around 14C.
England will depend on pace which has bagged 23 wicket with spin giving them only six wickets. India has a balanced bowling record with pacers picking 17 wickets and spinners an equally 16 wickets.
James Anderson and Ravindra Jadeja top the bowler’s list with ten wickets each.
The winner of the final will be richer by $2,000,000 (Dh7.34m) while runner up can pocket $1,000,000.
England team from : Alastair Cook (capt), Ian Bell, Jonathan Trott, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan, Ravi Bopara, Jos Buttler (wk), Stuart Broad, James Anderson, James Tredwell, Steven Finn
Johnny Bairstow, Graeme Swann, Chris Woakes, Tim Bresnan.
India from: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt wk), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Dinesh Karthik, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Murali Vijay, Amit Mishra, Irfan Pathan, Vinay Kumar.
Umpires: Kumar Dharmensena and Rod Tucker
TV umpire: Bruce Oxenford
Match starts: 10.30am UAE Time: 1.30pm
