ICC Champions Trophy 2025: Captain Rohit Sharma refuted the idea that India has an unfair edge in the Champions Trophy since they play all of their games in Dubai. He said that the ground here has presented his team with “different challenges” and that there is no “home venue” for them.

India’s decision to remain in Dubai for the length of the ICC showcase has drawn criticism from a number of former players from Pakistan, Australia, and England, who claim that it gave them a greater opportunity to adjust to the conditions than other Group A teams.

“The pitch presents you with new difficulties each time. The surface has reacted differently in the three games we have played here. This is Dubai; this is not our home. “This is new for us as well, and we don’t play here very often,” Rohit said during the pre-match news conference before to the semifinal matchup with Australia.

In the encounter against the Australians in the round of four, Rohit said that his team must swiftly adjust to the surface.

“In this case, four or five surfaces are being used. You see, I have no idea which pitch will be used in the semifinals. However, we will need to adjust and determine what is and is not occurring. And we’ll capitalize on it,” he said.

Rohit emphasized his argument by bringing up India’s most recent Group A game against New Zealand here on Sunday.

“We saw that it was swaying little while the bowlers from New Zealand were bowling. When our bowlers were bowling in the first two games, we didn’t notice anything. We did not see a lot of spin in the last game, but today we did see some.

Thus, various events are taking place on all surfaces. Therefore, it is impossible to predict what will or won’t occur on this surface,” he remarked.

A surface with some help for the bowlers would make the match even more thrilling, according to the seasoned cricket player.

“It becomes quite intriguing if there is something for the bowlers as well. It appeals to me. When dealing with difficult surfaces, such as those that have spin or seams, you want to have that. He said, “You want a good contest.”

Rohit also defended the choice of five spinners in the Indian team for the major tournament, claiming that since they were watching the ILT20 here, they had some knowledge of the surfaces in Dubai.

“We sort of understood that surfaces would be delayed after looking at the surface here and learning about what has transpired in Dubai over the last two months. We believed that the slower bowlers would be much more useful here, therefore we watched ILT2,0, which was played here.

“Rishabh (Pant) is available in any case if you want an additional batter. We thus reasoned that there was always a possibility we may play those men with the additional spin option,” he stated.

Reaching Dubai well in advance, according to the 37-year-old, helped the squad “adapt” to the circumstances here.
It was critical that we swiftly adjusted to these circumstances. Fortunately, we arrived five or six days early, had productive training sessions, and the pitches at the (ICC) Academy were somewhat comparable to what we would see here.

“So, the adaptation is the key when you play on any surface and we adapted pretty well in all three games,” he said.