Indian cricket team in action during Champions Trophy 2025© AFP
Legendary Indian cricket team batter Sunil Gavaskar ended the debate over India enjoying any kind of ‘unfair advantage’ during their Champions Trophy 2025 campaign. India played all of their matches – including the final – in Dubai after their government decided to not send the national side to Pakistan due to political tensions. As a result, several ex-cricketers as well as current players pointed out that it was a huge advantage for Rohit Sharma and Co as they were aware of their fixtures and they did not have to travel to other venues. However, Gavaskar completely rubbished such claims after India’s win over New Zealand in the final and even namedropped the England cricket team in his explanation.
“Yes, there will be the carpers who talked about the advantage India had playing only at one venue and not having to travel between matches. However, that was decided by the ICC much before the tournament started, and any negative comment about that should have happened before the tournament’s first ball was bowled. And if ‘home advantage’ is the reason India won, then how come England, from where most of the whingers were, did not win ICC trophies till 2019 despite hosting it about half a dozen times earlier?” Gavaskar wrote in his column for Sportstar.
The legendary cricketer went on to praise skipper Rohit Sharma and pointed out that the well-balanced team was the main reason behind India’s triumph.
“India won simply because it had a well-balanced team, and at different times in the tournament, different players played a game-changing role in the team’s win. Above all, there was the captaincy of Rohit Sharma, who, in winning two ICC titles as captain, has joined the incomparable MS Dhoni in winning multiple titles as skipper of the Indian cricket team. Rohit also squashed rumours about his impending retirement, saying he has not decided to retire from the format,” he added.
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