Sunday 09 / March / 2025
Dubai: Ahead of the ICC Champions Trophy final clash against India, New Zealand head coach Gary Stead said that his team would not worry too much about change in venue from Lahore to Dubai from semifinal to the title clash, saying that the situation is "out of their hands" and since they have played a game against India in Dubai before during the group stages, they will be using it as a learning experience.
India will play New Zealand in the final of the ICC Champions Trophy on March 9 at the Dubai International Stadium. India is undefeated in the tournament so far, and the Kiwis have looked rock solid with bat and ball under Mitchell Santner's captaincy.
The clash promises to be an epic sequel to the 2000 ICC Champions Trophy final, which New Zealand won. Men in Blue would like to avenge losses to the Blackcaps in the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup semifinal and 2021 ICC World Test Championship final.
India did not travel to Pakistan due to security reasons and played all their matches in Dubai, unlike other teams in the tournament who had to travel from Pakistan to Dubai and vice-versa during the league stage and semifinal for their matches. With teams having to adapt to different playing conditions, it has generated some controversy in cricketing circles, with ex-cricketers like Nasser Hussain and Michael Atherton being among the personalities having alleged that the scheduling offers an advantage to India because they have a massively reduced travel time, play at just one venue where they know the conditions well and selected their squad keeping Dubai in mind.
Speaking on the situation to the media, Stead said, "Decision around that it is out of our hands. We will not worry about that too much. India have got to play all their games here in Dubai, but as you said, we have had a game here, and we will learn very quickly from that experience. When you come to this stage of the tournament, it is always exciting to be in this situation. If we are good enough to beat India on Sunday, then I am sure we will be very happy."
"I think there is no doubt that coming here or playing Lahore and we had a full day of travel yesterday, then it just takes it out of you a little bit, but we have got a couple of days now of a little bit of recovery and a little bit of planning and training towards the game, but I guess we are deep into the tournament now and sometimes it is not always a lot of training that you need. It is just getting your body and your mind right to compete in the final and that will be our key focus over the next two days," he added.
Stead said that regarding travelling from high-scoring, batting friendly conditions in Pakistan to more bowling-friendly surfaces in Dubai, it is all about adapting.
"I think that is just about adapting and working out on your feet what you think the pass score is for the day and I guess trying to be a little bit ahead of that. I think the danger is you come from scoring 360-odd in a game, and you think you will do that again immediately, and you go a little bit hard. So for us it is just working out what are the right tactics on the day, who we are faced up against as well, and then adapting to that," said Stead.
Notably, after India marched to the final with a four-wicket win over Australia, head coach Gautam Gambhir quickly dismissed the idea that his side had received such an advantage. He went on to state in a hypothetical scenario that if India travelled to Pakistan, they would have still gone for two front-line spinners, considering the subcontinental conditions.
"First of all, this is as neutral a venue for us as it is for any other team. We have not played here. I don't remember which tournament we played in this stadium last. And in fact, we didn't plan anything like that. The plan was that if you pick two front-line spinners in the 15-man squad, then even if we played in Pakistan or anywhere, we would have picked two front-line spinners because it was a competition on the subcontinent. So, it was nothing like we wanted to set up a spinners' trap. If you look at it, we only played one front-line spinner in the first three matches," Gambhir said during the post-match press conference.
Gambhir went on to take an aim at "perpetual cribbers" and asked them to grow up while ruling out the probability of India receiving an undue advantage.
"We only played two front-line spinners in this match or the previous match. So, it was nothing like that. And there's a lot of debate about the undue advantage and all that. What undue advantage? We haven't practiced here even for a day. We're practicing at the ICC Academy. And the conditions there and here are 180 degrees different. If you look at the wickets there and here, the difference is between the ground and the sky. Some people are just perpetual cribbers, man. They've got to grow up. So, I feel that there was nothing like we had any undue advantage or we had planned something like that," he added.
