Rohit Sharma had a reply for critics of India’s Champions Trophy 2025 campaign for playing all matches in Dubai. He stated that the venue is not their home as the surfaces and conditions have varied every match.
India refused to travel to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy. The Dubai International Cricket Stadium was picked as the co-host for their matches. It also meant the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had to keep the venue option for the final on March 9 open.
Former England captains Michael Atherton and Nasser Hussain were heavily critical of the scheduling saying India had a ‘home advantage’. Australia and South Africa, who had qualified for the semis from Group B, were forced to travel to Dubai. They also had to wait for the result of the final Group A game between India and New Zealand.
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The Proteas, along with New Zealand, travelled back to Lahore for the second semifinal on Wednesday after the Black Caps lost to India by 44 runs.
Rohit Sharma countered the claims of ‘home advantage’ by saying that his team had encountered different conditions while playing against Bangladesh, Pakistan and New Zealand in the group stage.
“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. And in the evening, it’s a little cold in the air. So, there are obviously a lot of chances of that swing. We know this. But the three games we played, there are four or five surfaces that are being used. So, every surface has a different nature. We don’t know which wicket will be played,” Rohit said ahead of the semifinal clash against Australia.
Rohit said that his team is unaware of the pitch behaviour going into the semifinal which will be a replay of the 2023 ODI World Cup final which Australia won. However, they will be without a number of their star players, specifically the pace trio of Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, and Mitchell Starc.
“In the semi-final, we don’t know which pitch is going to be played. Yes, we don’t know which pitch is going to be played in the semi-final. But whatever happens, we have to adapt and see what is happening. We will play on that. This Dubai; this is not our home. So, we don’t play so many matches here. This is new for us too,” Rohit added.
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