Former England captains Michael Atherton and Nasser Hussain called out India’s advantage at the 2025 Champions Trophy.
Following India’s refusal to visit Pakistan, the ICC were forced to schedule India’s league matches and semi-final (and if they qualify, the final) in Dubai. As a result, Pakistan, New Zealand, and Bangladesh will all have to play their Group A matches across two countries, while the Group B teams will have to do the same if they face India in the knockouts.
Atherton and Hussain spoke at lengths on Sky, comparing India’s schedule with the other teams.
“About the advantage India have in playing in Dubai, only in Dubai, which seems to me to be a hard-to-quantify advantage but an undeniable advantage,” said Atherton. “They’re playing at just one venue. They don’t have to travel between venues or, you know, between countries as a lot of other teams have to do. Therefore, the selection can focus on Dubai, you know, can focus in on the conditions in Dubai, where they are playing their semi-final as and when they get through to that. That seems to me an undeniable advantage.
“It is an advantage. For the best team in the tournament to have that advantage...”, responded Hussain. “I saw a tweet the other day: Pakistan – host nation, India – home advantage. That sort of sums it up, really.
“They’re [India] in one place. They’re in one hotel. There is no travel. They’re in one dressing room. They know the pitch. They picked for that pitch. When they selected, they were very smart. They probably knew what Dubai was going to be like. They picked all their seamers. There was a bit of debate from Indian media saying, ‘Why haven’t you gone for the extra seamer? Why all these spinners?’ We’ve seen why.”
India picked Kuldeep Yadav along with their two spin-bowling all-rounders, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel, in their starting XI. They also have Varun Chakravarthy and another spin-bowling all-rounder, Washington Sundar, in their squad. Despite the uncertainty over Mohammed Shami’s fitness, they picked only Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana, and all-rounder Hardik Pandya to support him.
“The other sides have not done that. Like I mentioned, England, if they do get through to the semi, they’ve got one spinner,” added Hussain. England had come into the tournament with Adil Rashid as their lone specialist spinner, backed by the part-timers. However, when Brydon Carse got injured, they replaced him with spinner Rehan Ahmed.
“Pakistan last night [against India] had one frontline spinner [Abrar Ahmed],” continued Hussain. “You could argue that when the injuries came, they should’ve changed that, and I’ve made that argument. But all the other sides have to pick for different conditions – Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Dubai, and then they have to travel and adjust to those conditions.”
“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-Pakistan, that’s not going to happen. It had to be in Dubai. They [India] sit happily and comfortably there, knowing that they will probably play six games there, and if they win all those they will win another global tournament.”
