'This is not our home, this is Dubai' - Rohit Sharma shuts down one-venue advantage debate

There has been an ongoing debate during the Champions Trophy 2025 about India playing at the same venue throughout the tournament. The team has been playing all their matches at the Dubai International Stadium while other teams need to travel to different venues in Pakistan and Dubai to play their matches.

The arrangement was done as the Indian government did not let the team travel to Pakistan for the ICC event due to security concerns. While some people think that this is an unfair advantage inadvertently received by the Men in Blue, India skipper Rohit Sharma shut down the critics ahead of the semi-final clash against Australia, mentioning that Dubai is not their home ground and the pitches have reacted differently in every match they have played so far. Rohit also said that the team does not play many games at this venue which makes it as mysterious for them as the other teams.

“Every time, the pitch is giving you different challenges. The three matches that we played here, the pitch has behaved differently. This is not our home, this is Dubai. We don't play so many matches here, and this is new for us too," Rohit said during the pre-match press meet ahead of the semi-final.

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“There are four or five surfaces that are being used here. See, I don't know which pitch is going to be played in the semifinals. But whatever happens, we will have to adapt and see what is happening and what is not. And we will play on that,” Rohit added.

Speaking of the Indian team’s performance, they are the only team in the tournament to win all three of their matches in the group stages. The last match they played was against New Zealand in which they successfully defended a target of 250, winning the game by 44 runs in the end.