“Wicket was not great for spinners” - Kuldeep Yadav on Dubai pitch in ICC Champions Trophy 2025

Kuldeep Yadav, a bowler for Team India, has stated that the Dubai International Stadium's 2025 ICC Champions Trophy pitch was not suitable for spinners. Following the hybrid model, the Men in Blue played all of their games at a neutral location during the campaign rather than in Pakistan, the host country.

To counter the sluggish wickets in the Middle East, Team India's Champions Trophy team featured five spin bowling options. After starting with a three-spinner strategy, India added a fourth spinner, Varun Chakaravarthy, to intensify their spin attack.

With all-rounder Hardik Pandya as the only other pace-bowling option in the lineup, this specific combination only featured one frontline seamer in Mohammad Shami.

In the competition's Dubai leg, spinners were crucial, as Chakaravarthy finished as the joint second-highest wicket-taker.  

Kuldeep Yadav had a successful campaign as well, taking seven wickets at an economy rate of 4.79 and an average of 31.85. The left-arm wrist spinner, however, believed that the pitch was not doing much to help the spinners and that they had to work hard to make progress.

"I thought that the wicket was not that great for spinners. It was slow, but it was difficult to produce wickets. On a good track, if you bowl a wrong'un and the batter can't read it, you can get him out, but not on that surface in Dubai, because there was not much spin," Kuldeep Yadav told Michael Clarke on the Beyond 23 Cricket Podcast.

India was accused of having an unfair advantage in the tournament, as it played all of its matches at one venue.

“It was difficult to get wickets,”—Kuldeep Yadav on his CT 2025 outing

Kuldeep Yadav started his Champions Trophy campaign without taking any wickets in the first match against Bangladesh. His three-wicket haul against Pakistan made a huge impression, while Varun Chakaravarthy's decisive five-wicket haul against New Zealand overshadowed his two wickets.

With nine wickets apiece, Varun Chakaravarthy and Mohammad Shami finished the competition as India's top two wicket-takers, followed by Kuldeep Yadav. Team India had a good campaign, thanks to five wickets each from Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja.

"I think I'm bowling as well as I have ever bowled; I've been bowling really well for the last three or four years after my injury. I think I bowled well in the Champions Trophy. It was difficult to get wickets because we were playing with four spinners, but I was right on, bowling wicket-to-wicket," Kuldeep Yadav said.

India won their third ICC Champions Trophy 2025 title by defeating New Zealand in the final.

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