Former Cricketer Robin Uthappa has silenced the controversy claiming that India’s venue advantage at Dubai in the Champions Trophy 2025.
He also admitted a ‘familiarity’ advantage for the Men in Blues, given that they will play all their games at the same venue while the other side will have to travel there to compete with them.
Robin Uthappa’s statement comes shortly after Sunil Gavaskar’s comment on the issue. “I won’t call it a home advantage, but there is a familiarity advantage. I was listening to an interview yesterday.”
“If I am not mistaken, Wasim Jaffer was saying that if he was going to play in Dubai, he could have played one match in Dubai, one match in Abu Dhabi and one match in Sharjah.”
“We could have definitely done that. So that other teams don’t have to complain about this situation.”
“But why didn’t we go to Pakistan? These are geopolitical reasons. And every country has a right. If they don’t want to go, then they shouldn’t go.”
“And if a team has to play in a venue because of that, then they have to play. We could have complained that if we had played in Pakistan, our record scores would have been very good.”
“Every batsman gets an opportunity to make a run. This is a matter of speaking. At the end of the day, a match is between a bat and a ball. And I believe that the team that plays well on that day will win.” the former India cricketer added.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) were forced to accept the hybrid model that will see the Men in Blue play all their matches, inclusing the knockout stages, in Dubai.
On the other hand, Rohit Sharma-led India have already qualified for the semi-finals after the side’s win over Bangladesh and Pakistan.
However, they are set to play their final group stage matches against New Zealand on March 01 at Dubai International Stadium.
