"An advantage": Nasser, Atherton on India playing all Champions Trophy matches in Dubai

London [UK], February 25 : Former England cricketers Nasser Hussain and Michael Atherton have said India has advantage in ICC Champions Trophy as they are playing only at one venue - Dubai - and don't have to travel to different venues.
After India's refusal to travel to Pakistan for the ICC Champions Trophy due to security concerns, they are now playing all their matches in Dubai as part of a hybrid model, including their semifinal clash. As a result, their group members, Pakistan, New Zealand and Bangladesh will be having to play their matches across both Pakistan and Dubai. Even Group B members, South Africa, Afghanistan, Australia and England will face the same thing if they move to knockouts.
Atherton and Nasser spoke on India's schedule on Sky Sports, as quoted by Wisden, comparing it to other teams. They said that playing at one venue has helped their team reduce their travel time very significantly as now the travelling is limited from a hotel to the stadium and even their selections were made keeping Dubai in mind, while other teams have to factor in all the venues, Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi and Dubai while making their team selection.
"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 Atherton as quoted by Wisden.
"They are playing at just one venue. They do not have to travel between venues or, you know, between countries as a lot of other teams have to do. Therefore, the selection can focus on Dubai, you know, can focus in on the conditions in Dubai, where they are playing their semi-final as and when they get through to that. That seems to me an undeniable advantage," he added.
Nasser agreed, saying, "It is an advantage. For the best team in the tournament to have that advantage...I saw a tweet the other day: Pakistan - host nation, India - home advantage. That sort of sums it up, really."
"They are [India] in one place. They are in one hotel. There is no travel. They are in one dressing room. They know the pitch. They picked for that pitch. When they selected, they were very smart. They probably knew what Dubai was going to be like. They picked all their seamers. There was a bit of debate from Indian media saying, 'Why have not you gone for the extra seamer? Why all these spinners?' We have seen why," he added.
India picked up five spinners in their squad, two specialist spinners in Varun Chakravarthy and Kuldeep Yadav and three spin bowling all-rounders in Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel and Washington Sundar. Despite Mohammed Shami just having returned from a massive injury layoff, they picked up a rather inexperienced and thin pace line-up of Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana, and all-rounder Hardik Pandya to support his workload, with Mohammed Siraj in non-travelling reserves.
Hussain said that other teams have not done so, and if England goes to the semifinal, they have just a specialist spinner. However, England have now replaced an injured Brydon Carse with spinner Rehan Ahmed.
"Pakistan last night [against India] had one frontline spinner [Abrar Ahmed]," continued Hussain. "You could argue that when the injuries came, they should have changed that, and I have made that argument. But all the other sides have to pick for different conditions - Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Dubai, and then they have to travel and adjust to those conditions."
"It is an advantage, but what else could happen? ICC, once India refused to come here to Pakistan, what else could happen? You cannot have a tournament like this without India-Pakistan, that is not not going to happen. It had to be in Dubai. They [India] sit happily and comfortably there, knowing that they will probably play six games there, and if they win all those, they will win another global tournament," he concluded.