Team India head coach Gautam Gambhir dismissed criticism suggesting that the team benefited from a favorable schedule in the 2025 Champions Trophy. The Men in Blue secured a four-wicket win over Australia in the semifinal, advancing to their third consecutive Champions Trophy final.
However, discussions over the past week among former players and fans have focused on India playing all their matches in Dubai, while other teams had to travel between three venues in Pakistan and Dubai (for matches against India).
Due to India’s refusal to travel to Pakistan, a hybrid model was implemented, allowing India to play all their games in Dubai. Addressing concerns about this potential advantage in the post-match press conference after the semifinal win over Australia, Gambhir said (via ‘ESPN Cricinfo’):
“There’s a lot of debate about the undue advantage and all that. What undue advantage? We haven’t practised here even for one day. We’re practising at the ICC Academy.”
”And the conditions there and here are 180 degrees different. 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.”
He further added:
“See, first of all, this is as neutral a venue for us as it is for any other team. We have not played here. I don’t remember when last we played here.”
“And in fact, we didn’t plan anything like that. The plan was that if you pick two frontline spinners in the 15-man squad, then even if we played in Pakistan or anywhere, we would have picked two frontline spinners because this was a competition in the subcontinent.”
“You don’t claim to have covered everything”- Gautam Gambhir
Gautam Gambhir lauded India’s dominant Champions Trophy run while emphasizing areas for improvement before the final. India convincingly defeated Australia in the semifinal, avenging their 2023 ODI World Cup loss.
“In international sport, you want to keep improving. You don’t say that you’ve ticked all the boxes. There’s always room to improve. There’s always something to improve, be it in batting, fielding, or bowling. And we still haven’t played a perfect game. We still have one more game to go. Hopefully we can play a perfect game,” said Gambhir.
He further concluded:
“And that is the kind of person I am. I will never be satisfied with the performances. We want to keep improving, we want to stay humble, we want to be ruthless on the cricket field, but absolutely humble off the field as well.”
”That’s the kind of team environment and that’s the kind of culture we want to create in that dressing room, and be absolutely honest.”
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