Mohammed Shami Attacks Gautam Gambhir On India’s Dubai Advantage In Champions Trophy 2025

More than India’s powerful performance in the ongoing Champions Trophy 2025 at the Dubai International Stadium, the biggest discussion of the town is around the side’s unfair advantage of playing the entire tournament at the same venue, without any travel, unlike the other sides.

Most of the former players and the pundits of the game reckoned that India played the entire two-week event at the same venue, making it easier for them to gel with the conditions and arrange their team’s combination with five spinners in the side.

Mohammed Shami admits India’s Dubai advantage in Champions Trophy 2025

India’s pacer, Mohammed Shami, enjoyed the conditions of the surfaces during the semifinal against Australia, besides picking up five wickets during the previous group-stage clash against Bangladesh. Against the Steve Smith-led side, he picked up three wickets.

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“It is certainly helping us. We know the conditions and the behavior of the pitch. It is certainly an advantage to play all the matches at one venue.” He expressed at the end of the semifinal encounter.

In all the games of the tournament so far, the Blue Brigade has successfully bundled out the opposition. They went with the two left-arm spin all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel, along with the two quality spinners, Kuldeep Yadav and Varun Chakravarthy, into the side.

Shami took care of the new ball beautifully in the absence of their premier pacer, Jasprit Bumrah, while Hardik Pandya’s ability to bowl with the new ball and pick crucial wickets in the middle overs helped them the most in picking a balanced side.

Rohit Sharma rules out India’s advantage of playing in Dubai

On the eve of the semifinal encounter against the current ODI World Cup champions, captain Rohit Sharma reckoned that they played all of their games on different surfaces, and those were new challenges for them.

“Look, the three matches we played, the nature of the surface was the same. But in all three games, the pitch has behaved differently. Today, we saw that when the bowlers were bowling, their ball was swinging a little. We didn't see that in the first two games when our bowlers were bowling.” Rohit expressed this in the pre-match conference before the semifinal.

“And in the evening, it's a little cold in the air. So, there are a lot of chances of that swing. We know this. But in the three games we played, there are four or five surfaces that are being used. So, every surface has a different nature.” The Nagpur-born added.

“Some people are just perpetual cribbers”- Gautam Gambhir

India’s head coach, Gautam Gambhir, reckoned that they practiced at the ICC academy before the tournament, and the conditions have no similarity between that and the Dubai International Stadium. He felt that people were giving false statements on the side, getting an unfair advantage.

“There’s a lot of debate about the undue advantage and all that. What undue advantage? We haven’t practiced here even for a day. We’re practicing at the ICC Academy. And the conditions there and here are 180 degrees different.” Gautam Gambhir addressed after the semifinal victory.

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“If you look at the wickets there and here, the difference is between the ground and the sky. Some people are just perpetual cribbers, man. They’ve got to grow up. So, I feel that there was nothing like we had any undue advantage or we had planned something like that.” India’s former opener claimed.

Even the two former England captains, Nasser Hussain and Michael Atherton, during a Sky Sports Podcast, reckoned that the blue brigade got a free hand by playing the entire event on the same surfaces. Rohit Sharma’s army will face New Zealand on March 09 in the final.