Gambhir was asked if he knew about the situation in Dubai when he chose five spinners in his squad, three of them were all -rounders of different capacity. Long reaction left for a long time, targeting “always Crimes”.
“Look, first of all, it is neutral as a neutral site for us because it is for any other team,” Gambhir said. “We have not played here. I don’t remember that we played here for the last time. And in fact, we did not plan to do anything like this. The plan was that if you choose two frontline spinners in the 15-man squad, even if we played in Pakistan or anywhere, we would have chosen two frontline spinners as it was a competition in the subcontinent.
“So, it’s not that we wanted to spin a spinners web. If you see it, we played only one frontline spinner in the first two matches. We played two frontline spinners in this match and last match.
“And there is a lot of debate about unfair advantage and all of that. What is the unfair advantage? We have not practiced here even for a day. We are practicing in the ICC Academy. And there are situations and 180 degrees different. Some people are just Cribes, friends. They were nothing to grow up.
“Yes, look, I’m not buying in it,” Smith said. “I think what is this. India has clearly played some very good cricket here. Surface -like spinners suit their style that they have got and the seamers that they have in their disposal for a wicket. They played well, they finished us, and they deserve winning.”
However, Mohammed Shami, who took the top wicket of the tournament, said that the familiarity of playing in the same ground has helped him. This does not mean what he said, he directly contradicts what Gambhir said. Gambhir spoke shining about how well Shami is ready for matches. So Shami was asked about his preparation.
“The main thing is to know the conditions and the behavior of the pitch well,” Shami said. “Because you are playing at one place, you have the opportunity to get a habit of proper situations. So in practice I keep things simple, and try to bowl according to the pitches for the match.”
Asked whether to play at one place was an advantage, Shami said: “Surely. Because you know the behavior of situations, pitch. A lot of things … The way the weather was today, cold, your brain works even more. It is a plus point that all your matches are played at the same place.”
After saying all this, participating in the final of another ICC event in India will be happy to have many hearts. India lost only in the final in the 2023 ODI World Cup, won the T20 World Cup without leaving a match in 2024, and won all their four matches in the ongoing Champions Trophy. Recently, after some difficult times in Test cricket, Gambhir rejoiced the “innocent” performance, but was careful of overtaking himself.
“You used a very good word, which we played ‘innocent’,” said Gambhir. “I think we did, but we still have another game. We know that we are one day a day, and the most important thing is that the way we have really played in this competition. Hunger, commitment, and eagerness to try and do something special for the country are always in the dressing room.
“In international sports, you want to keep on improving. You don’t say that you have tickled all boxes. There is always a place to improve. There is always something better, it is in batting, fielding, or bowling. And we have still not played an ideal game. We still have a more game. Hopefully we can play an ideal game.
“And this is the kind of person I am. I will never be satisfied with the performance. We want to keep reforming, we want to be humble, we want to be ruthless on the cricket field, but want to be completely humble along with the field. This is the atmosphere of that kind of team and this is the kind of culture that we want to create in that dressing room, and we can play completely.”
Siddharth Monga is a senior writer in Espncricinfo
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