Exclusive: Gautam Gambhir, Mohammed Shami Contradictory Statements Fanned 'Venue Advantage' Allegations - WC Winner

Cricket fans around the world are eagerly waiting to witness the high voltage final match of Champions Trophy 2025 between India and New Zealand on Sunday in Dubai. Rohit Sharma and co have been the most dominating side in the tournament as they won all the group stage matches and then went on to beat Australia in the semi-final. They will now look to repeat their heroics against the Kiwis in the summit clash, in order to avenge the loss at the ODI World Cup 2019 semi-final.

Due to the political tensions against Pakistan, India refused to travel to the neighbouring country and all their games were scheduled in Dubai. This resulted in a mixed response as many former and current cricketers called it an "unfair advantage" for India.

In an exclusive interview with NDTV, two-time World Cup winner Brad Hogg backed India but also said that contradictory statement from Mohammed Shami gave rise to the criticism.

"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 told NDTV.

"But 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 which can beat India in Dubai is New Zealand," he added.

Earlier, India head coach Gautam Gambhir had turned down all the claims about having an advantage of playing in Dubai.

"Kaunsi undue advantage? (What undue advantage?) We practice at ICC Academy, where conditions are different from what we get here at the stadium. Some people are perpetual cribbers; they need to grow up," said Gambhir after India's win over Australia in the semi-final of Champions Trophy.

Topics mentioned in this article

India Cricket Team New Zealand Cricket Team Brad Hogg Mitchell Santner Rohit Sharma Gautam Gambhir ICC Champions Trophy 2025 Cricket India vs New Zealand, Final