Gautam Gambhir lashes out at critics over India’s ‘undue advantage’ in 2025 Champions Trophy

India’s head coach Gautam Gambhir slammed the critics over India’s undue advantage of playing all their matches in Dubai in the ongoing Champions Trophy. Gambhir highlighted that they have been training at the ICC Academy in Dubai and didn’t have even one practice session at the venue.

Experts like Nasser Hussain and Michael Atherton recently said that India is having an extra advantage as compared to other teams in the ongoing eight-team tournament.

The English boffins claimed that while India is playing all their matches at a single venue, other teams are playing across all venues and thus have to manage their travel.

Gautam Gambhir said in the post-match presentation, “ “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.”

Gambhir said they would have picked two frontline spinners in their squad as this tournament is played in the sub-continent.

“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.”

India has made it to the final of the tournament but Gambhir reckons there is still scope for improvement as they haven’t ticked all the right boxes.

“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.

“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.”

India will take on either New Zealand or South Africa in the final at Dubai on Sunday.