India's decision to play all their Champions Trophy matches in Dubai rather than travelling to the host nation, Pakistan, has sparked a wave of opinions. Some are of the opinion that India might have an advantage by playing all their matches at one venue, while others have dismissed such claims. Indian head coach Gautam Gambhir has firmly dismissed the idea, firing back at the critics claiming that India are having an undue advantage. Gambhir was asked whether they were aware of the conditions in Dubai as their squad was rife with five spinners.

"See, 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 even remember the last time we played here. And in fact, we didn't plan anything like that. Our plan was that if you pick two frontline spinners in the 15-man squad, then even if we played in Pakistan or anywhere, we would have picked two frontline spinners because this was a competition in the subcontinent," Gambhir said during the press conference after India's victory over Australia.

"So, it's not like we wanted to spin a spinners' web. If you look at it, we only played one frontline spinner in the first two matches. We played two frontline spinners in this match and the previous match."

"And there's a lot of debate about the undue advantage and all that. What undue advantage? We haven't practised here even for one day. We're practising at the ICC Academy. And, there is 180 degree difference between the conditions there and here. 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."

India, meanwhile, have qualified for the final of the ongoing Champions Trophy after beating Australia in the semi-final 1 on Tuesday in Dubai.