India playing all their Champions Trophy matches in Dubai was a pre-tournament decision, and talk of it giving India an unfair advantage is baseless, the team’s batting coach says as he blasts back against the criticism.
Rohit Sharma’s India face New Zealand in the title clash on Sunday at the Dubai International Stadium, where the tournament favourites have been unbeaten in their four matches.
India refused to tour hosts Pakistan in the eight-nation tournament due to political tensions and were given Dubai as their venue in the United Arab Emirates.
“The draw that happened, it happened before,” batting coach Sitanshu Kotak told reporters before the final. “After India winning four matches, if people feel that there is an advantage, then I don’t know what to say about it.”
The tournament’s tangled schedule with teams flying in and out of the UAE from Pakistan while India have stayed put has been controversial.
South Africa batsman David Miller said “it was not an ideal situation” for his team to fly to Dubai to wait on India’s semifinal opponent and then fly back to Lahore in less than 24 hours.
Even nominal hosts Pakistan had to jump on a jet and fly to Dubai to play India rather than face them on home soil.
The pitches have been vastly different in the two countries. Pakistan tracks produced big totals in contrast to the slow and turning decks of the Dubai stadium.
“End of the day, I think in a game you have to play good cricket every day when you turn up,” Kotak said. “So the only thing they [critics] may say is that we play here. But that is how the draw is.”
“So nothing else can happen in that. It is not that after coming here, they changed something, and we got an advantage,” he added.
India have been the team to beat after they topped Group A, in which they faced New Zealand, Pakistan and Bangladesh. They then beat Australia in the first semifinal.
New Zealand, led by Mitchell Santner, lost the last group game to India by 44 runs before they beat South Africa in the second semifinal in Lahore.
Kotak said the previous result between the two teams will have no bearing on their mindset going into the final.
“That depends how the New Zealand team thinks, but I think we should not think that,” Kotak said.
“We should just try and turn up and play a good game of cricket because there is no use thinking about the last match.”
New Zealand head coach Gary Stead said they are not too worried about India’s advantage.
“I mean, look, the decision around that’s out of our hands,” Stead said.
“So it’s not something we worry about too much. India have got to play all their games here in Dubai. But as you said, we have had a game here, and we’ll learn very quickly from that experience there as well.”
“And if we’re good enough to beat India on Sunday, then I’m sure we’ll be very, very happy,” he added.
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