India will play all their Champions Trophy 2025 games in Dubai. The pitches there were used in the ILT20, which ended on February 9, only 11 days before India's tournament opener. Does that mean that the surfaces will be predominantly slow? And will they wear out as the tournament progresses?
Matthew Sandery, the head curator at the Dubai International Stadium, is non-committal about the latter question. But he is confident his team has had enough time since the completion of the ILT20 to prepare the "best surfaces" at the venue where India will play their group matches and – in case they qualify – the knockouts too.
"The wickets that we will use for the Champions Trophy will have a minimum of two weeks of recovery from their last game of ILT20," Sandery tells ESPNcricinfo. "We will aim to provide the best surfaces possible for Dubai and its conditions. I am confident that the pitches will be suitable for ODI requirements as expected around the world."
India are unlikely to mind if the pitches are on the slower side. They go in as favourites despite the absence of their premier fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah, who misses out due to back issues.
Their squad includes five spinners, three of whom are fingerspinning allrouners – Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar – who provide batting depth, and two are X-factor wristspinners in Kuldeep Yadav and Varun Chakravarthy. This enviable collection of bowlers can create pressure on most surfaces, but they're likely to be even harder to negotiate on slow pitches. Going by their recent line-ups, it's likely that India will begin the tournament with a three-seamer-three-spinner combination.
During the ILT20, a total of 15 matches, including the final, were played in Dubai, of which 14 were day-night games. Conditions at the ground offered a fair balance, giving batters and both kinds of bowlers something to work with. Fast bowlers averaged 25.06 at the venue while going at an economy rate of 8.08, while spinners managed corresponding figures of 29.16 and 7.46.
Dubai, though, has not hosted ODIs involving the Full Member teams since June 2019. This makes it hard to read into recent 50-overs numbers from the venue. For what it's worth, if you consider ODIs from 2018, Australia and Pakistan have scored the only two 300-plus totals in 35 matches at the venue, and both came in the same match. Since 2018, the average first-innings total in Dubai in ODIs has been 213, while the average winning total has been 252. Teams batting first have won 14 and lost 19 times, with one tie and one no result also in the mix.
Sandery does not foresee dew being a major factor, especially with the difference between day- and night-time temperatures in Dubai expected to be low. "Dew is a funny thing; we have played a very competitive ILT20 Season 3 in the UAE over the last month, and I think it didn't come into play much at all."
The Champions Trophy is the first marquee men's event being played in Dubai since the 2021 T20 World Cup, where India failed to make the semi-finals. They have been training since Sunday at the ICC Academy and will kick off their campaign on February 20, against Bangladesh.