India head coach Gautam Gambhir fiercely responded to critics who claimed that the team had an \u201cundue advantage\u201d in the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 due to playing all their matches at the Dubai International Stadium, while other teams had to travel between Pakistan and the UAE. Gambhir dismissed these allegations, calling out the \u201cperpetual cribbers\u201d and urging them to \u201cgrow up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Following India\u2019s four-wicket win over Australia in the semi-final, Gambhir was asked about the alleged advantage of playing at a single venue. His response was sharp and direct:<\/p>\n
\u201cKaunsi undue advantage? (What undue advantage?) We practice at ICC Academy, where conditions are different from what we get here at the stadium. Some people are perpetual cribbers; they need to grow up,\u201d<\/em> he stated during the post-match press conference.<\/p>\n The venue debate arose because India has played all its matches in Dubai, unlike other teams who had to travel between Pakistan and the UAE. This arrangement was made after the Indian government declined to send the team to Pakistan, prompting concerns from other competing nations about fairness in scheduling.<\/p>\n Riding on Virat Kohli\u2019s 84, Shreyas Iyer\u2019s 45, and K.L. Rahul\u2019s unbeaten 42, India successfully chased 265 against Australia to secure a spot in the final of the eight-team tournament. With this win, India now awaits the winner of the New Zealand vs South Africa semi-final, which will be played in Lahore on March 6.<\/p>\n Despite some scrutiny over KL Rahul\u2019s performance, Gambhir defended India\u2019s wicketkeeper-batter, emphasizing his importance at No. 6 in the batting order.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t care about criticism, I am honest to my job\u2026honest to 140 crore Indians. KL averages 50 in ODIs, I don\u2019t really care about criticism and all that. There is no talk about batting numbers, only about impact. We want impact, and KL adds depth at No.6,\u201d<\/em> he added.<\/p>\n India will now compete for their third ICC Champions Trophy title, having previously won in 2002 (shared) and 2013. The final is set to take place on March 9, 2025, in Dubai, where India will face either New Zealand or South Africa in the title clash.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" India head coach Gautam Gambhir fiercely responded to critics who claimed that the team had an \u201cundue advantage\u201d in the\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":250,"featured_media":31533,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3965,103],"class_list":["post-8727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cricket","tag-champions-trophy-2025","tag-gautam-gambhir"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}India\u2019s Path to the Final<\/h3>\n
Backing KL Rahul Amid Criticism<\/h3>\n
India\u2019s Final Showdown on March 9<\/h3>\n