India’s score to reach the semifinals of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 was sealed once again on Monday, while New Zealand’s win over Bangladesh eliminated the hosts Pakistan from the event.
India won both their opening matches by defeating Bangladesh and Pakistan by common-winning margins of six wickets. New Zealand has also made it two wins back-to-back and reached the semifinals along with India from Group A.
Former players Michael Atherton and Nasser Hussain believe India might have the ‘advantage’ of playing all their matches in Dubai, where they had refused to travel to Pakistan because of the prevailing security conditions.
“What about the advantage India was handed by playing in Dubai and only in Dubai? An advantage that in my view is quite hard to put down in numbers, in terms of its value, but undeniably an advantage. They’re playing at one venue,” Atherton questioned on Sky Sports.
“There won’t be travel between venues or between countries; others have to travel. And that means the selection, in a way, can get really focused around details in Dubai. And of course, they’ll know where their semi-final will be played as and when they get through to that. Unarguably, that’s an advantage for them, but it’s very hard to say how much advantage it is,” Atherton put to Hussain.
Nas and Athers discuss India's advantage of playing all of their ICC Champions Trophy matches in Dubai 💬 pic.twitter.com/ZUTJUfAuC0
— Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) February 24, 2025
“I’m not so sure that it’s an advantage. And so, in such a tournament, if the best teams have that advantage, it can’t be full out an advantage. I saw a tweet the other day saying, Pakistan, home host nation, India, home advantage. And that really kind of sums it up. I mean, they’re all in one place, one hotel, no travel, and one dressing room. They know the exact pitch, picked for that. When the selection came, I think that they were pretty smart. Probably they had an idea of what Dubai was going to be like, also picked all their spinners. There was even some questions, but from India media saying, Why haven’t you gone for the extra? Seems like, why all these spinners? Well, we’ve seen what, why, and also other sides,” Hussain said.
“They are not done, like I mentioned; England has one spinner if they make it through to the semi. Pakistan had one frontline spinner last night, you could argue when the injuries came he should have changed that, and I’ve made that argument too. But all these other nights they have to pick for various conditions: Karachi, Lahore, alpindi, Dubai, then travel and adjust to those conditions. So, it is, it is an advantage. But what else could happen? ICC once India refused to come here to Pakistan. What else could happen? You can’t have a tournament like this without India, and Pakistan. That’s not going to happen. That is why it had to be in Dubai, and they sit happily and comfortably there, knowing they are probably going to play six games there, and if they win all that, they will win another global board,” he pointed out.
