In the 2025 Champions Trophy final, Mitchell Santner, the captain of New Zealand, won the coin toss and was selected to bat first against India. Since the 2023 Cricket World Cup final in November 2023, India has lost 15 straight games, which is the longest streak of any team in one-day internationals. After defeating Australia in the semi-final and Bangladesh, Pakistan, and New Zealand in the group stage, India is the only team still undefeated in the competition.

After the Indian government denied their team permission to go to "hosts" Pakistan for security reasons, all games were played in Dubai. After defeating Bangladesh in Rawalpindi and Pakistan in Karachi, New Zealand traveled to Dubai to play India. After that, the Black Caps went back to Pakistan, where they defeated South Africa in Lahore, the second semi-final. This competition has been won by both teams before. India's most recent victory was in 2013, while in 2017, they finished second behind Pakistan.