IND vs AUS: ‘Not Buying Into it’ - Smith Dismisses Claims of India Gaining Advantage by Playing at Single Venue

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Australia captain Steve Smith has dismissed claims of a venue advantage to India after his team suffered a 4-wicket defeat against the Men in Blue in the semi-final of the ongoing Champions Trophy 2025 in Dubai.

India playing at one venue has been a hot topic for debate among former cricketers and some sections of fans. Former England cricketers Mike Atherton and Nasser Hussain brought up the topic for debate, saying India got the luxury of picking a team of the conditions.

Meanwhile the likes of Pat Cummins and Jos Buttler also believe a team can benefit by playing at one single venue. This topic has come for discussion after Team India picked five spinners in their squad. However, Indian captain Rohit Sharma has argued that three of the five spinners are all-rounders.

After India stormed into the final, head coach Gautam Gambhir, who also said India has picked only two front-line spinners, quickly rubbished the possibility of his side receiving an undue advantage of playing all of their matches in Dubai.

Even Smith didn't buy into the claims that India had an advantage by playing all its matches at one venue and felt India deserved to win, considering they had completely "outplayed" them.

"Yeah, look, I'm not buying into it. I think it is what it is. India obviously played some really good cricket here. The surface kind of suits their style with the spinners that they've got and the seamers that they have at their disposal for a wicket like that. They played well, they outplayed us, and they deserve the victory," Smith said in the post-match press conference on Tuesday night.

After Australia won the toss and opted to bat, glimpses of the 2023 final reverberated in the stadium. Travis Head provided a brisk start with his swift 39 (33), putting the Baggy Greens in a dominant position.

With Australia scoring at a healthy run rate, a total somewhere around 300 appeared to be plausible. The only factor keeping them from hitting their goal was Indian bowlers regularly breaking their partnerships at crucial junctures. Smith admitted that if they had managed to drag one of their stands, 290 to 300 would have been a realistic total instead of settling for 264.

"Yeah, I think the toss was the right decision. I think we had our opportunities throughout to post something above 300. We were probably just that one wicket down too many at a few stages throughout the innings. If we extended one of those partnerships a little bit, we're probably getting up 290 - 300, and we're putting a bit of pressure on the scoreboard," he said.

"So, it's clearly not the easiest wicket to bat on. The square block as a whole I think has seen a lot of cricket over the last couple of months. We can see it's pretty tired and that's probably the reason why we haven't seen a score above 300 in the tournament here so far. So we did a reasonable job but we probably just lacked a couple of those partnerships just dragging out a little bit further to get us up somewhere near 300 or just above," he added.