Several former cricketers have called out India’s advantage of staying in Dubai for the Champions Trophy. However, India skipper Rohit Sharma has rejected claims, saying that the pitches have behaved differently in all the matches played in Dubai so far.
India skipper Rohit Sharma has rejected the ‘home advantage’ claims for India in the ongoing Champions Trophy. Team India are playing all their matches in the showpiece event in Dubai, while the other teams are travelling back and forth from Pakistan to UAE only to play against India. This hasn’t gone down well with many former cricketers from Pakistan, England and Australia. Former England cricketer Nasser Hussain recently stated that Pakistan are the hosts, but India have the home advantage.
On the eve of the first semifinal against Australia, Rohit Sharma quashed claims of any advantage of playing at the same venue, stating that the pitch has played differently in Dubai in all three matches of the tournament so far. “Every time, the pitch is giving you different challenges. The three matches that we played here, the pitch has behaved differently. This is not our home, this is Dubai. We don’t play so many matches here, and this is new for us too,” Rohit said in the pre-match press conference.
Rohit pointed out there was swing for the new ball bowlers upfront when India were batting against New Zealand. Interestingly, there was nothing for the fast bowlers in the earlier two matches against Bangladesh and Pakistan. Thanks to the early assistance, the Kiwi bowlers nipped out India’s top three early, reducing them to 30/3.
“We saw that when the bowlers were bowling, it was swinging a little bit. We did not see it in the first two games. In the last game, we did not get to see that much spin, today there was a bit of it. So, there are different things happening on every surface. So, it is not like we know what is going to happen on this pitch and what is not going to happen,” the India captain added.
