‘What advantage? Because we won four matches to reach final…’: India’s sharp retort to ICC doing partiality claims

Rohit Sharma-led Team India will face New Zealand in the ICC Men’s Champions Trophy 2025 final at the Dubai International Stadium on Sunday. Ahead of the marquee contest, India batting coach Sitanshu Kotak rubbished all the talk of the Indian team being given an advantage in the eight-team tournament. Throughout the competition, several former cricketers, such as Nasser Hussain, Michael Atherton, and Vivian Richards, have spoken about India’s unfair advantage of playing all its matches at just one venue in the UAE.

After the semi-final loss against New Zealand, even South Africa’s middle-order batter David Miller lashed out at the ICC regarding the tournament’s scheduling. The fixtures of the Champions Trophy 2025 led both Australia and South Africa to travel to Dubai from Pakistan after the group stage to prepare for the potential semi-final against India.

However, after Rohit Sharma and company’s win against New Zealand in Dubai, the South African team had to fly back to Lahore for the semi-final against New Zealand.

Amid all this chatter, India batting coach Sitanshu Kotak on Friday said that his team has been playing as per the draw, and the entire fixture list was chalked out well in advance. Hence, there is no reason to talk about ‘advantage’, especially when India has reached the final by playing better cricket.

“I don’t understand what advantage there is and what advantage we have gotten. There is nothing about the advantage. The draw was decided a long time ago. When India have won four matches, then people are thinking we have been given an advantage,” Kotak told reporters in Dubai.

“I don’t know how to respond to this. At the end of the day, you have to play good cricket. If you don’t play well, you can’t complain. If you play well, there is no point saying there was some advantage. We are practicing here, we are playing matches there. Obviously, different wickets. That is how the draw is. Nothing else can be done. It’s not like conditions were changed after coming here,” he added.

‘There is no advantage’

Sitanshu Kotak further doubled down on his statement, saying there is ‘no advantage’ as teams need to play good cricket to win, and it’s about the better team coming out on top.

“I don’t know what advantage. The tournament’s draw is like this from the start. So, nothing has changed. If people think all this after us reaching the final, that’s tough, man. That is how the game goes; we have played as per the draw. There is no advantage. You have to play good cricket to win,” he said.

After India’s semi-final win over Australia in the Champions Trophy, even head coach Gautam Gambhir was asked about his team’s “advantage” in the competition. However, Gambhir did not take the charge lightly, saying some people are just “perpetual cribbers” who need to “grow up.”

“There’s a lot of debate about the undue advantage and all that. What undue advantage? We haven’t practiced here even for a day. We’re practicing at the ICC Academy. And the conditions there and here are 180 degrees different,” Gambhir told reporters.

“If you look at the wickets there and here, the difference is between the ground and the sky. 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 or we had planned something like that,” he added.