India's head coach Gautam Gambhir finally addressed the ongoing discussions regarding India's perceived advantage of playing all their ICC Champions Trophy matches at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. Gambhir's hard-hitting response on India's undue advantage claims came after India's four-wicket win over Australia in the Champions Trophy semifinal at the Dubai International stadium on March 4.
Gautam Gambhir's hard-hitting response on India's undue advantage claims
Gambhir firmly stated that the Indian team had not conducted any training sessions at the venue.
“There's no undue advantage in India playing in Dubai. This venue is as neutral for us as it is for the others. We haven't even practised once at this ground as of now. We practised at the ICC Academy,” Gambhir said in the post-match press conference.
"Some people are perpetual cribbers," Gambhir added
The debate surrounding venue selection arose from the fact that India played all their matches in Dubai, while other participating teams were required to play in various locations within Pakistan and navigate travel between the two nations. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) didn't allow Team India to travel to Pakistan for Champions Trophy which prompted ICC to stage the eight-team tournament in hybrid model.
It all started after former England cricketers Nasser Hussain and Michael Atherton's remarks on India's one-venue advantage. Their comments during a podcast sparked further debate, with South African batsman Rassie van der Dussen and England captain Jos Buttler subsequently expressing their own reservations about the perceived advantage.
“You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that the ability to train and play in one place, coupled with the absence of any inter-city or inter-country travel, gives India an edge that they will be under pressure to fully exploit,” Rassie van der Dussen told ESPNCricinfo.
“Not really. I think it's a unique tournament already, isn't it, with being hosted here with one team playing in a different place but that's not something I'm sort of worried too much about at the moment” Jos Buttler had earlier said.
“What about the advantage India have in playing in Dubai, only in Dubai? Which seems to me to be a hard-to-quantify advantage, but an undeniable advantage,” Michael Atherton had said.
Talking about the match, India rode on Virat Kohli's masterful 84-run knock to chase down Australia's 265-run target in the semifinal clash to storm into Champions Trophy final. Rohit Sharmawill have their eyes set on Champions Trophy title as they will take on the winners of other semifinal clash between South Africa and New Zealand.
MORE ON SPORTS TAK:
