India could reportedly play their Champions Trophy matches on fresh Dubai pitches.
India will reportedly play all 2025 ICC Champions Trophy matches on two fresh pitches at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium (DICS). The Men in Blue will start their campaign against Bangladesh on February 20 followed by matches against Pakistan (February 23) and New Zealand (March 2).
Not long ago, Dubai hosted the U19 Asia Cup and the International League T20 (ILT20). According to the news agency PTI, there were “specific instructions” to not use two of the pitches in Dubai to keep them fresh for the ICC mega event. Further, the fresh pitch could offer balanced support to the batting and bowling departments.
“There are 10 match strips at the DICS. During the league stage, there was specific instructions that those two won’t be used now and needed to be kept fresh for the Champions Trophy. However, whether any of the two was used for the play-offs isn’t known. The idea is to ensure that it doesn’t become low and slow after over-use and matches become drag. The fresh pitches will aid the batters and bowlers in equal measure,” a source aware of the developments told PTI.
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The recent history of the ILT20 at the same venue suggests that pacers have accounted for more wickets than the spinners. Across 15 matches of the Dubai T20 league, 116 wickets (68.2%) were scalped by seamers compared to just 54 wickets (31.8%) for spinners.
However, with the usage of fresh pitches, that could change as the conditions could favour spinners. Having said that, India have five spinners in their squad namely—Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Varun Chakravarthy, and Washington Sundar.
The Rohit Sharma-led outfit will be confident going into their tournament opener against Bangladesh in Dubai on Wednesday.
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