Former Australia cricketer Brad Hogg took centre stage and defended team India after there has been several conversations about the side’s venue in the ICC Champions Trophy 2025.
The Indian team have made their way to the summit clash of the ongoing Champions Trophy 2025. Led by Rohit Sharma, the Men in Blue are unbeaten in the tournament and have defeated the likes of Bangladesh, Pakistan, New Zealand, and Australia to reach the summit clash of the competition.
It is worth noting that India have played all of their games in the tournament in Dubai. Seeing as the competition was being played in Pakistan, the BCCI refused to travel to the country and opted to play their matches in Dubai instead. However, the same decision has seen many come forward and question the ICC’s decision to have the Men in Blue play all of their matches at the same venue.
With many opining that India have an ‘unfair advantage’ due to the same, former Australia cricketer Brad Hogg took centre stage and came to India’s defence; he opined that everyone wanted India to play in the tournament and hoped for the political relations between India and Pakistan to improve.
“You are playing at one venue. You have played all your games there and got used to the conditions. Gautam Gambhir came out and said, ‘Look, you shouldn’t be complaining as it a neutral venue for us as well’. But then, Shami came out on top of that and said that playing in Dubai has helped his bowling and playing at one particular venue has worked for him. So, that made others think that India are having a slight advantage,” Hogg was quoted as saying by Sportskeeda.
“At the end of the day, we wanted India to play the Champions Trophy. This political issue with Pakistan prevented them from playing over there. Hopefully, one day all this stops so the cricketing relations between the two nations resume. This is the scenario we are all in. Australia did not complain. They accepted it and got beaten by a better team on a particular day. I think the only team that can beat India in Dubai is New Zealand,” he added.
Notably, India are all set to take on New Zealand in the summit clash of the Champions Trophy 2025 at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on March 9. The Men in Blue have already beaten New Zealand at the same venue, and the team will hope for a similar showing in the final as well.