Gautam Gambhir: No unwarranted advantage in Champions Trophy

After India’s 4-wicket win in the Champions Trophy semi-finals against Australia on Tuesday, head coach Gautam Gambhir came down hard on critics who say his team has benefitted from undue advantage by being able to play the entire tournament based at one venue in Dubai. Gambhir fiercely defended his team, stating that the players' hard work, talent, and dedication were the reasons for their success, not the location of the tournament. He emphasized that the team had put in countless hours of training and preparation to reach this point and that their performance on the field was a result of their exceptional skills, not any external factors. Gambhir urged critics to give credit where it is due and recognize India's achievements without attributing them to location-based advantages.

“What undue advantage? We haven’t practised here (stadium) even for a day. We practice in the ICC academy. And the conditions there and here are 180 degrees different,” he told reporters. “If you look at the wickets there and here, there’s a huge difference. Some people are just perpetual cribbers, man. I feel that there’s nothing like that. We didn’t have any undue advantage.”

After the Indian team said it could not travel to Pakistan, who are the tournament hosts, they have played all their matches in Dubai, where they have successfully chased down totals in three matches and defended once. In comparison, one of the other semi-finalists South Africa played their league matches in Pakistan, flew to Dubai for training and to be ready in case India had finished second in Group A inside of topping it. They then had to return to Lahore for their semi-final against New Zealand on Wednesday.

New Zealand have played matches in Rawalpindi, Karachi and Dubai, and will be play their semis in a fourth venue.

Gambhir spoke glowingly of captain Rohit Sharma’s batting tempo at the top and refused to be drawn into commenting on his future. “We have a final of the Champions Trophy to look forward to. What can I answer you about his future?” he said. “And if your captain plays with this kind of tempo, it just gives a very good signal to the dressing room that we want to be absolutely fearless and courageous.”

Rohit has scored 104 runs in four matches and is yet to score a fifty. But the India skipper has committed to batting at a high tempo to set the pace for the rest of the batting line-up. Rohit’s strike rate (107.21) is the best among all Indian batters, alongside Hardik Pandya.

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