India’s title victory in the recently concluded Champions Trophy, where they defeated New Zealand in the final, has been overshadowed by a storm of controversy. Many have pointed to the fact that India played all of their matches in Dubai rather than traveling to the host nation, Pakistan. There have opinions that Indian team gained an unfair advantage by playing in Dubai only. However, former Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar has stepped in to put the debate to rest, arguing that there was no unfair advantage for India in this situation.
"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.
Gavaskar also underlined the fact that a balanced team was the reason behind India’s spectacular show at the Champions Trophy.
"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.