India-Pakistan Pitch Set to Host Champions Trophy Final Between India and New Zealand

The pitch for the Champions Trophy final will be the same one used for the India-Pakistan Group A match on February 23. Like most pitches, it is likely to be slow and difficult to score on, helping the spinners. This should work in favor of the Indian team.

In that big match, Pakistan opted to bat and found themselves under pressure from the Indian bowlers, with spinners Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja sharing five wickets between them. Varun Chakravarthy hadn’t bowled yet at that point, but considering the nature of the pitch, he would likely enjoy bowling on it.

The pitches in Dubai have mostly helped the bowlers more than the batters. In the four matches played there so far, the average score has been 246. The highest first-innings total was 264 by Australia in the semifinal against India. India successfully chased down that target in the 49th over, losing six wickets along the way. On the other hand, the average score in the 10 matches held in Pakistan has been higher at 295.

With Chakaravarthy in top form and Jadeja, Kuldeep, and Axar strengthening the spin attack, the Indian team should feel confident going into Sunday’s final against New Zealand. Interestingly, India is the only team in the tournament to have bowled out all four of their opponents so far.

The Dubai International Cricket Stadium (DICS) has a total of 10 pitches, all managed by Australian curator Matthew Sandery. The pitches are quite similar, generally slow, and tend to offer good support for the spinners.

The ICC has used four different pitches in the Champions Trophy so far. For the final, they’ve decided to reuse the one right in the center. Since the last match on that pitch was over two weeks ago, it’s had plenty of time to recover and settle.

Sitanshu Kotak spoke about the pitches at the DICS, saying that the Indian batting has managed to handle the nature of the wickets well. "In every match, the wicket changes slightly. As a batting coach, how do you assess our batsmen's ability to adapt? While the wicket does change a bit, its overall nature hasn't shifted much. However, the batting has been excellent. And secondly, we've been fortunate to get solid starts, and on occasions when those starts were lacking, the middle order stepped up," Kotak said before the team’s practice session at the ICC Academy on Friday night (March 7).

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