Champions Trophy | Nasser Hussain and Michael Atherton on India playing in Dubai: ‘They have an undeniable advantage’

“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,” said Michael Atherton in conversation with Naseer Hussain on Sky Sports 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, you know, 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, you know, kind of hard to quantify how big an advantage,” he said.

India captain Rohit Sharma with Pakistan’s Mohammad Rizwan during the toss at Dubai International Cricket Stadium. (AP)

Nasser Hussain said India have been very smart with their selection and the five-spinners in the squad is making sense.

“It is an advantage. So, the best team in the tournament have that advantage. And I saw a tweet the other day saying ‘Pakistan host nation, India home advantage.’ It sums it up really,” he said.

“They are at one place, one hotel, they don’t have to travel. They have one dressing room. They know the pitch, they have picked for that pitch.

“They were very smart in their selection. They probably knew what Dubai is going to be like. They picked all their spinners. there was a bit of debate with Indian media saying why don’t you have gone for an extra seamer? Why all these spinners? Now we can seen why.

“For example the other sides like England if they do get to the semis they have only one spinner (Rehan Ahmed is added as replacement of Brydon Carse), Pakistan have one frontline spinner. You can says that when the injuries came they should have change that and I have made that argument.

“Other teams will have to pick playing XIs for different conditions in Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi and then they have to travel and adjust to those conditions.

“So it is an advantage but what else could have happened. Once India refused to come to Pakistan, what could have happen. You can’t have a tournament like this without India-Pakistan. It had to be in Dubai.

“They sit happily and comfortably there. They know they are going to play six games there and if they will win all those, they will win another global tournament,” he said.