Hyderabad: India are all set to start their ICC Champions Trophy 2025 campaign as they square off against Bangladesh in their opening encounter on Thursday, February 20. Unlike other teams, Rohit Sharma and Co. will play all of their matches at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium after the Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) denied visiting Pakistan due to uncordial political relations between the two nations.
India have not played a single ODI in Dubai since 2018 and hence, will have to be wary of the conditions ahead of the campaign opener. Dubai is historically known to favour teams bowling first as the due generally plays a crucial role in the second innings making it harder for teams to defend scores.
𝙍𝙀𝘼𝘿𝙔 💪
— BCCI (@BCCI) February 19, 2025
Just one day away from #TeamIndia's opening fixture of #ChampionsTrophy 2025 ⏳ pic.twitter.com/Ri3Z93T28y
However, the Asian Giants have a phenomenal record in Dubai, having won five out of the six ODIs played at the venue with one game ending in a tie. Interestingly, the tie game was MS Dhoni's 200th ODI as captain.
Official photo of the Bangladesh Team for the #ChampionsTrophy 2025 at SBNCS, Mirpur 🫶 🇧🇩#BCB #Cricket #Bangladesh #BDCricket pic.twitter.com/tjLJaKXfrd
— Bangladesh Cricket (@BCBtigers) February 12, 2025
India and Bangladesh have faced each other once in the ICC Champions Trophy, in 2017, where Men in Blue won by 9 wickets.
In a pre-match press conference, captain Rohit Sharma was questioned about the impact of due and the ongoing overcast conditions in Dubai on India’s matches. Answering the question, the India skipper said that the due is unpredictable, he stated that his team has enough weapons in their armoury to succeed in these conditions as well.
"I'm not too sure about the dew, it’s is a very unknown factor to all of us. It is very unpredictable because like for us in India, we are so much aware of certain conditions and certain venues. That also surprised us a little bit when we played in Nagpur the day before the game, there was so much dew, but during the game, there was no dew. So you can't really think too much about that and prepare based on that," said Rohit.
"In terms of the overhead conditions I think, it’s not a massive difference where you're playing in 28, 30 degrees to a 10 degree or a 15 degree. It is going to be overcast if it is we have the arsenal to combat that if there are conditions which are helping the bowlers with the overhead conditions, the bowlers are there to exploit that and the batters if you bat in those overhead conditions, they exactly know what to do," he added.
Furthermore, Rohit was asked whether they had set a plan of bowling first considering the history of the venue. The Indian captain answered that they cannot make a judgement about the toss factor based on T20 matches and also said that the team will make a decision based on the opposition’s strengths and weaknesses.
"I never go with a set plan of thinking about in this venue this has worked for certain teams, so we should try and do that. Whatever works for us, we will try and do that whether it is batting second or batting first. I’ve still not seen the pitch, we need to still see the pitch and talk to the groundsmen about the conditions of the ground and stuff like that. Whatever the recent games have been played here were all T20 formats. So, I don't know if it's the right thing to look at that and do our judgement," said the India skipper.
