Dubai, Mar 8: Batting coach Sitanshu Kotak, on Friday, said the extended stay here didn’t offer any advantage to India, and said that such criticism began only after the team started winning the Champions Trophy matches.India will take on New Zealand in the final of the ICC marquee event here on Sunday.
“I don’t understand what advantage we get from this (pitch). People feel that India got an advantage after we won the matches. I don’t know what to say about that. We just played to the draw,” Kotak told reporters here during India’s net session.
Kotak said irrespective of the nature of the pitch, the team needed to play good cricket to win the match.
“I think in a game, you have to play good cricket every day when you turn up. If you don’t play well, then you can’t complain. And if you play well, there is no point in saying whether you got an advantage or not.
I don’t really think we have an advantage just because we are practicing here and we are playing matches here,” he added.
Kotak echoed head coach Gautam Gambhir’s view that the nature of the pitches at the training facility and at the DICS was vastly different.
“We obviously practice on different wickets. We are playing matches on a bit of different pitches. We all know that. So, the only thing is that we played here. But that is how the draw is. So, nothing else can happen in that.
“It is not that after coming here, they changed something and got an advantage,” he noted.
Kotak also dismissed the notion that India held a psychological edge over New Zealand in the final after defeating it in the group match a few days ago.
“I think we should not think like that. We should just try and turn up and play a good game of cricket. There is no point in thinking about the last match. We have to think on what to do on the 9th,” the former Saurashtra legend added.