With the ongoing diplomatic relations between India and Pakistan, the Men in Blue will not travel to the neighbouring country after mutual agreement between the BCCI, PCB and the ICC in the multi-team events until 2028. Similarly, Pakistan will also play at a neutral venue when India is the host.
It’s strange that a short 15-match ICC tournament is being held in Pakistan but only one out of the eight teams doesn’t travel to the country and gets to play in an entirely different geographical location with the other teams having to travel for just one game to Dubai to play them. That team is India in the ongoing Champions Trophy, who arrived in Dubai on February 15 and if all goes well will stay till March 9 while playing all their five matches at the same venue without having to travel anywhere, not worrying about different conditions and thus familiarity helping them in the knockouts, if they reach that far in the tournament.
Nasser Hussain and Michael Atherton, the former England captains acknowledged the advantage India have in the ongoing ICC event while admitting that Men in Blue expected what the conditions might be like in Dubai and picked the team accordingly, packing five spinners in the 15-member squad.
“What 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,” Atherton said on Sky Cricket Podcast. “They’re playing at just one venue. They don’t have to travel either between venues or, you know, between countries, as a lot of other teams have to do.
“Therefore, the selection, can focus in on the conditions in Dubai, and obviously they’ll know where they’re playing their semi final as and when they get through to that. That seems to me to be an undeniable advantage, but kind of hard to quantify. How big? How big an advantage?” Atherton put Nasser on the spot with the question.
“No, it is an advantage. So the best team we have in the tournament have that advantage. I saw a tweet the other day saying, Pakistan, the host nation; India, home advantage. And that sort of sums it up, really,” Nasser added.
“They’re in one place. They’re in one hotel. There is no travel. They’re in one dressing room. They know the pitch. They’ve picked for that pitch. I think selection, when they selected, they were very smart. They probably knew what Dubai was going to be like. They picked all their spinners. There was a bit of debate even from Indian media saying, Why haven’t you gone for the extra? Seems like, why all these spinners? Well, we’ve seen what, why, and also other sides,” the former England captain further added.
With the hostile diplomatic relations between India and Pakistan, it was an unavoidable situation after the BCCI refused to travel to Pakistan after which it was agreed mutually between the three parties involved that the travel to each other’s countries be scrapped in ICC events when the other country is the host until 2028. And, ICC couldn’t have afforded to hold a tournament without India.
This was the adjustment everyone knew and agreed to, all the other boards and as they say, it is what it is. India have already qualified for the semi-finals after beating Bangladesh and Pakistan with New Zealand being the other team to go through from Group A. The situation is a little more complex in Group B with all four teams still in contention to seal a final four spot.
