India-Pakistan pitch for Champions Trophy final

The surface for the Champions Trophy final will be the same one that was used for the Group A league fixture between India and Pakistan on February 23. As with most pitches, it is expected to be slow and sluggish, offering definitive assistance to the spinners and the Indian team should not mind this.

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 had yet to come into the picture by then. While his effectiveness on the wicket remains a topic of speculation, it's unlikely he won't relish bowling on the surface.

The Dubai pitches have largely assisted the bowlers more than batters. The average score in the four games so far in Dubai is 246, with 264 by Australia in the semifinal against India being the highest first-innings total. India had chased down that target in 49th over, losing six wickets. Incidentally, the average score in the 10 games played in Pakistan is 295.

With Chakaravarthy in sizzling form and Jadeja, Kuldeep and Axar completing the spin attack, the Indian team should feel confident heading into Sunday's title clash against New Zealand. India, incidentally, are the only side in the competition to dismiss all oppositions - four of them.

There are 10 pitches in all at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium (DICS), managed by Australia curator Matthew Sandery working on them. All of them are largely similar to one another - slow in nature with unmistakable aid for the spinners.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has used four different pitches so far in the Champions Trophy, and for the final, one of them - located bang at the centre - is being reused. With the last game having been played over two weeks ago, the pitch has had ample time to rest.

Speaking on the pitches here at the DICS, Sitanshu Kotak said the Indian batting has taken nature of the wicket out of the equation. "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," the batting coach remarked before the start of the Indian team's nets at the ICC Academy on Friday (March 7) night.