Brad Hogg defends India’s scheduling in Champions Trophy

Former Australian spinner Brad Hogg has defended India’s scheduling in the Champions Trophy. While former as well as current players have questioned India’s scheduling in the eight-team tournament, Hogg has come in support with the Men in Blue.

Due to political and security reasons, India decided not to travel to host Pakistan and thus it was decided that they will play all their matches in Dubai. However, experts claimed that India are having an advantage in the tournament as they got acclimatized to the conditions and also didn’t have to travel.

However, Indian head coach Gautam Gambhir and captain Rohit Sharma denied such claims, stating that Dubai is a neutral venue for them and they have not been training at the ground but at the ICC Cricket Academy.

Brad Hogg told NDTV, “You are playing at one venue. You have played all your games there and got used to the conditions. Gautam Gambhir came out and said, ‘Look, you shouldn’t be complaining as it a neutral venue for us as well’. But then, Shami came out on top of that and said that playing in Dubai has helped his bowling and playing at one particular venue has worked for him. So, that made others think that India are having a slight advantage.”

Meanwhile, India defeated Australia by four wickets in the semifinal clash on Tuesday and Hogg admitted the better team won on the day. The former chinaman feels New Zealand can only beat India in Dubai.

Hogg added, “At the end of the day, we wanted India to play the Champions Trophy. This political issue with Pakistan prevented them from playing over there. Hopefully, one day all this stops, so the cricketing relations between the two nations resume. This is the scenario we are all in. Australia did not complain. They accepted it and got beaten by a better team on a particular day. I think the only team which can beat India in Dubai is New Zealand.”

India made it to the final of the Champions Trophy after winning all of their four matches.