Sourav Ganguly Rubbishes Dubai Advantage Talks With Sharp Reply To Hussain, Atherton: 'Pitches In Pakistan...' (Source: PTI)
Former India captain Sourav Ganguly fired back at Nasser Hussain and Michael Atherton after they claimed that playing all their matches in Dubai was an advantage to India. India were not given permission by the government to play the ICC Champions Trophy matches in Pakistan after which the BCCI and PCB agreed for the hybrid model, with India's matches in Dubai.
India performed well in their league games and defeated Bangladesh, Pakistan, and New Zealand. Following their juggernaut, a few, including Atherton and Hussain along with England captain Jos Buttler and South Africa batter Rassie van der Dussen, highlighted India's advantage of playing all their matches in Dubai, saying that while other teams played all their matches at different venues and travelled between cities for matches, India avoided all the headache.
Ganguly, however, hit back at the claims and said India would have scored more runs had they played matches in Pakistan. While the matches in Dubai have been fairly low scoring, games in Pakistan saw 300 being posted and chased without breaking a sweat. "The pitches in Pakistan are much better. India would've scored more runs there," Ganguly said at a CAB event.
Earlier, Rohit Sharma had also played down the claims of Dubai being an advantage to India. "In the semi-final, we don't know which pitch is going to be played. Whatever happens, we have to adapt and see what is happening. We will play on that. This is not our home, this is Dubai. So, we don't play so many matches here. This is new for us too - Rohit Sharma said on the talk that India have advantage by playing all games in Dubai.
India Favourites In Semifinal
Meanwhile, India will take on Australia in the semifinal of the ICC Champions Trophy. Australia have given many heartbreaks to India in the past, most recently thrashing them in the ODI World Cup 2023 ,but India would be optimistic about defeating Australia in the semifinal. The Steve Smith-led is missing a few key players like Pat Cummins, Jos Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Marsh and Marcus Stoinis, and they'd have to be at their absolute best to beat India this time around.
Get Latest News Live on Times Now along with Breaking News and Top Headlines from Cricket, Sports and around the world.
