Captain Rohit Sharma criticized India for getting an unfair advantage due to playing all their matches in the Champions Trophy in Dubai, saying that it is not their home ground. He said that the pitches in Dubai have presented different challenges for his team. Many former players from Pakistan, Australia, and England had objected to India staying in Dubai for the entire duration of the Champions Trophy. They said that this move has given them a better chance to adapt to the conditions than the other teams in Group A.

'Pitch is giving different challenges'

Rohit said before the semi-final against Australia, 'Every time the pitch is giving you different challenges. In the three matches we have played here, the behavior of the pitch has been different. This is not our home, this is Dubai. We do not play so many matches here and it is also new for us. ' Rohit said that his team needs to quickly adapt to the favorable conditions during the last four matches against the Australian team.

'Four or five surfaces are being used'

He said, 'Four or five surfaces are being used here. Look, I don't know what pitch will be played in the semi-finals. But whatever happens, we have to adapt to it and see what is happening and what is not. And we will play on that.' Rohit referred to India's last Group A match against New Zealand on Sunday to emphasize his point.

'We don't know what is going to happen next'

He said, 'We saw that when the (New Zealand) bowlers were bowling, the ball was swinging a bit. In the first two matches, when our bowlers were bowling, we did not see that. In the last game, we did not get to see that much spin, but on Sunday it had a little swing.' He said, 'So, different things are happening on every surface. So, it is not like we know what is going to happen and what is not going to happen on this pitch.'

'There should be some help for the bowlers'
The Indian captain said that a pitch with some help from the bowlers would make the match more exciting. He said, 'If there is something in it for the bowlers as well, it makes the match very interesting. I am in favor of it. When you have challenging surfaces, whether it is with spin or with seam, you want to do that. You want a good competition.'

Rohit stated the selection of five spinners.

Talking about the selection of five spinners in the Indian team for this prestigious event, Rohit said that he had some information about the pitches of Dubai as he was keeping an eye on the ILT20 here. He said, 'Looking at the surface here, hearing about what has happened in Dubai in the last two months, we knew that the surfaces were going to be slow. We were watching the ILT20 that was played here and we thought that slow bowlers would be more helpful here.' He said, 'If an extra batsman is needed then we have Rishabh (Pant) there. So, we thought that with an extra option of spin, there is always a chance that we can play those guys.'

Arriving early helped
The 37-year-old said that reaching Dubai early helped the team to adapt to the conditions here. Rohit said, 'It was important for us to adapt quickly to these conditions. Fortunately, we came here five or six days ago. We had good training sessions and the pitches at the (ICC) Academy were quite similar to what we are going to get here. So, when you play on any surface, it is important to adapt to it and we have played very well on the pitch in all three matches.'

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