India cricket team head coach Gautam Gambhir has taken a dig at critics over claims of “one venue advantage” after his side booked their place in the final of the ongoing Champions Trophy 2025. Playing on Tuesday (Mar 4) at the Dubai International Stadium, India beat Australia by four wickets to advance to the summit clash. After the match, the Indian head coach highlighted that Team India had no advantage despite playing all their matches at one venue.

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Gambhir blasts critics

"First of all, this is as neutral a venue for us as it is for any other team," an agitated Gambhir told reporters, insisting India had not enjoyed any advantage over other teams, because they were not playing at home.

"We have not played here. I don't remember which tournament we played in this stadium last. And in fact, we didn't plan anything like that...

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"The plan was that if you pick two front-line spinners in the 15-man squad, then even if we played in Pakistan or anywhere, we would have picked two front-line spinners because it was a competition on the subcontinent."

As part of the hybrid model deal with ICC, India are playing all their matches in Dubai despite Pakistan being the official host of the tournament. The Men in Blue have so far won all their four matches in the Champions Trophy 2025 which were hosted in Dubai. English former captains and commentators Michael Atherton and Nasser Hussain claimed Team India have an advantage as they do not have to travel between matches while it is not the case for other teams.

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India in final of CT 2025

Exacting revenge for the loss in the ODI World Cup final, India got the better of Australia in the semifinal who were missing big-name players in the squad. Virat Kohli led the charge in the 265-run chase as he scored 84 runs while mature knocks from Shreyas Iyer (45) and KL Rahul (unbeaten 42) helped India to win. The Men in Blue will now face the winner of New Zealand and South Africa semifinal on Sunday in Dubai.