India coach Gautam Gambhir has said that those that accuse his side of enjoying an “undue advantage” at the Champions Trophy need to “grow up”.
The tournament favourites reached the final of the competition with a four-wicket win over Australia in the first semi-final as they eye another piece of silverware.
India have played all of their fixtures in Dubai after refusing to travel to Pakistan, the host nation, with the final also set to be hosted in the United Arab Emirates city after Gambhir’s side progressed.
It has meant that while their opponents have criss-crossed Asia travelling between games, India have had a single base throughout the tournament, while Gambhir was also able to name a spin-heavy squad in the knowledge of the likely conditions his side would contend with during the tournament.
While underlining their excellence as a side, former England captains Nasser Hussain and Michael Atherton declared last week that India were enjoying a form of “home advantage” among plenty of criticism of an imbalance.
But former batter Gambhir, a 2011 World Cup winner, believes critics are overplaying the benefits of his side’s situation.
“First of all, [Dubai] is as neutral a venue for us as it is for any other team," Gambhir said after the win over Australia. "We have not played here. I don't remember when last we played here. And in fact, we didn't plan anything like that.
“The plan was that if you pick two frontline spinners in the 15-man squad, then even if we played in Pakistan or anywhere, we would have picked two frontline spinners because this was a competition in the subcontinent. So it's not like we wanted to spin a spinners' web. If you look at it, we only played one frontline spinner in the first two matches. We played two frontline spinners in this match and the previous match.
“And there's a lot of debate about the undue advantage and all that. What undue advantage? We haven't practised here even for one day. We're practising at the ICC academy. And the conditions there and here are 180 degrees different. Some people are just perpetual cribbers, man. They've got to grow up. I feel that there was nothing like we had any undue advantage."
There was a point on Sunday where all four semi-finalists were in the UAE as India took on New Zealand to determine seeding for the knockout rounds.
India were guaranteed to play the first semi-final, meaning that potential opponents Australia and South Africa both had to travel to Dubai to allow them to train on match eve.
With Australia confirmed to be taking on the group winners, South Africa therefore travelled back to Pakistan on Monday morning to prepare for their semi-final against the Blackcaps in Lahore on Wednesday.
The tournament marked the first men’s major tournament to be held in Pakistan since the 1996 World Cup. With their encounter with India played in Dubai and match against Bangladesh washed out without a ball being bowled, the hosts played one match on home soil at the tournament.
