'Dubai is not our home': Rohit Sharma rejects 'unfair advantage' claims

Indian captain Rohit Sharma has dismissed claims about India having an advantage in the Champions Trophy by playing all matches in Dubai. He emphasised that Dubai is not their home venue.
Former cricketers from Pakistan, Australia, and England have criticised India's arrangement to stay in Dubai throughout the ICC tournament. They suggested this setup gives India better opportunities to adapt to the conditions compared to other Group A teams.
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"Every time, the pitch is giving you different challenges. The three matches that we played here, the pitch has behaved differently. This is not our home, this is Dubai. We don't play so many matches here, and this is new for us too," Rohit said during the pre-match press meet ahead of the semifinal against Australia.

Rohit highlighted the importance of quick adaptation for the semifinal clash against Australia.
"There are four or five surfaces that are being used here. See, I don't know which pitch is going to be played in the semifinals. But whatever happens, we will have to adapt and see what is happening and what is not. And we will play on that," he added.
Rohit referenced India's recent Group A match against New Zealand to support his statement.
"We saw that when the (New Zealand) bowlers were bowling, it was swinging a little bit. We did not see it in the first two games when our bowlers were bowling. In the last game, we did not get to see that much spin, today there was a bit of it. So, there are different things happening on every surface. So, it is not like we know what is going to happen on this pitch and what is not going to happen," he said.
The Indian captain expressed his preference for pitches that provide support to bowlers.
"If there is something in it for the bowlers as well, that makes it very, very interesting. I am one for it. When you have surfaces which are challenging, whether it's with spin or with the seam, you want to have that. You want a good contest," he said.
Rohit explained the decision to include five spinners in India's squad. The team had monitored the ILT20 tournament in Dubai to understand pitch conditions.

"Looking at the surface here, hearing about what has happened in Dubai in the past two months, we somehow kind of knew that surfaces are going to be slow. We were watching ILT20 which was played here and we thought the slower bowlers will be a lot more helpful here. If need an extra batter then anyway Rishabh (Pant) is there. So, we thought with an extra option of the spin, there is always a chance that we can play those guys," he said.
The team's early arrival in Dubai proved beneficial for their preparation.
"It was important for us to adapt quickly to these conditions. Luckily, we came here five or six days before, we had good training sessions and the pitches at the (ICC) Academy were very much similar to what we are going to get here. So, the adaptation is the key when you play on any surface and we adapted pretty well in all three games," he added.