"Even if we had played in Pakistan...": Gautam Gambhir

India head coach Gautam Gambhir (left) and skipper Rohit Sharma during a practice session in Dubai recently. Pic/Getty Images

After India made it to the final of the Champions Trophy by defeating Australia on Tuesday night, head coach Gautam Gambhir made his first appearance in front of the media and answered all questions with aplomb, refraining from being defensive about anything. One of the biggest talking points during this tournament has been about whether Team India have an advantage playing only in Dubai while their rivals have been hopping from venue to venue in Pakistan and also making a dash to play India in Dubai.

Gambhir claimed there was no such advantage. "What undue advantage? This is as neutral a venue for us as it is for any other team. We have not played here [too often]. I don't remember which tournament we played in this stadium last. We haven't practised here [at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium] even for a day. We're practising at the ICC Academy [ground nearby]. And the conditions and even the wickets there and here are totally different. Some people are just perpetual cribbers. They've got to grow up," said Gambhir.

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On the issue of stacking the team with five spinners, Gambhir said that the team had only two frontline spinners [Kuldeep Yadav and Varun Chakravathy] while the other three [Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar] were all-rounders. "The plan was always to pick two frontline spinners in the 15-man squad. Even if we [had] played in Pakistan or anywhere else, we would have picked two frontline spinners because it's a competition on the subcontinent. And when you talk about the spinning combination, we've got three all-rounders among those five spinners. I don't know why people keep forgetting that."

On the form of Rohit Sharma, Gambhir said the lack of big knocks from his captain is not a bother. "With the final of the Champions Trophy coming up, if your captain bats with such tempo, it just gives a very good signal to the dressing room that we want to be absolutely fearless and courageous. You evaluate [Rohit] from the runs or stats, we evaluate him from the impact. That's the difference. As journalists, as experts, you only look at numbers, averages, but as a coach, as a team, we don't look at numbers or averages. If the captain puts up his hand first, there's nothing better than that for the dressing room," added Gambhir.