Dubai has been locked in as the neutral venue to host India’s matches in the Champions Trophy with a semi-final and the final also to be staged in the UAE if Rohit Sharma and Co qualify for the knockouts.

A reliable source in the Pakistan Cricket Board confirmed that Dubai was chosen as the neutral venue after a meeting between PCB Chairman Mohsin Naqvi and his UAE counterpart Sheikh Nahyan Al Mubarak on Saturday night.

Sheikh Nahyan, who is currently vacationing in the Ghotki region of Sindh and Naqvi, who is also the country’s interior minister, met and finalised the logistical and administrative matters for the mega-event hosted by Pakistan.

On Thursday, the deadlock over the hosting of Champions Trophy finally ended when the ICC announced that India will play their matches of the 50-over event at a neutral venue instead of host country Pakistan, which will get a similar arrangement for tournaments to be held in India till 2027.

The ICC is now expected to announce the final schedule of the event with Pakistan expected to host 9 to 10 matches.

The final will be in Lahore If India doesn’t qualify for the final, the source said.

The hybrid arrangement will apply to the Champions Trophy 2025 (Pakistan), next year’s women’s Cricket World Cup in India and the T20 World Cup in 2026 in India and Sri Lanka.

India had refused to travel to Pakistan for the event scheduled in February-March due to security concerns.

The Indians have not played in Pakistan since the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks in which 150 people were killed. The two countries’ last bilateral engagement was back in 2012.

Travelling to Pakistan also requires Indian government’s clearance which has remained firm on the status quo.

While BCCI’s stance was always clear, the matter got stretched because of PCB’s refusal to allow a “one-sided” arrangement of neutral venues.

Led by Naqvi, the PCB was determined not to lose face in front of the local public.

PCB, which had sent its team to India for the ODI World Cup last year, had categorically opposed the hybrid model but eventually agreed to it on reciprocal grounds.

Joe Root returned to England’s one-day international squad for the first time since their ill-fated World Cup title defence in November 2023, as the country’s cricket board named players on Sunday for a white-ball tour of India and the Champions Trophy.

The England and Wales Cricket Board added that Ben Stokes was not considered for selection as the Test skipper continues to be assessed following a left hamstring injury sustained in their big defeat by New Zealand in the third test this month.

The talismanic all-rounder had come out of retirement in the 50-overs format to play in last year’s World Cup, where England finished a dismal seventh out of 10 teams.

England play five Twenty20 internationals and three ODIs against India starting on Jan. 22 before heading to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy in February and March.

Pace bowler Mark Wood returned to both squads after missing the tours of Pakistan and New Zealand with an elbow injury, but there was no spot for Sam Curran or Reece Topley.

Rising batsman Jacob Bethell was also rewarded for his good form in New Zealand.

Leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed joined the T20 unit, while veteran Root was named only for the ODIs.

The Jos Buttler-led squads will depart on Jan. 17 with head coach Brendon McCullum, who was put in charge of the limited-overs sides in September.

New Zealander McCullum had previously taken the reins of the test team in May 2022 and quickly oversaw a huge improvement, introducing an ultra-aggressive style that came to be known as “Bazball”.

England squads:

ODIs (India tour and ICC Champions Trophy):Jos Buttler (captain), Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook, Brydon Carse, Ben Duckett, Jamie Overton, Jamie Smith, Liam Livingstone, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Saqib Mahmood, Phil Salt, Mark Wood.

T20s (India tour): Jos Buttler (captain), Rehan Ahmed, Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook, Brydon Carse, Ben Duckett, Jamie Overton, Jamie Smith, Liam Livingstone, Adil Rashid, Saqib Mahmood, Phil Salt, Mark Wood.

Transitions are never easy. More so when a dressing room is dotted with superstars who are in the twilight of their glittering careers.

That’s the reason India Head Coach Gautam Gambhir finds himself caught between a rock and hard place.

Indian cricket’s big transition has started with Ravichandran Ashwin’s retirement, and Gambhir may have to be the ‘Harbinger of Doom’ for some of the megastars if the currently tied Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia does not end up being decisively in India’s favour in Melbourne and Sydney.

While Ashwin took the hard call himself, anyone with a basic understanding of Indian cricket would know that Gambhir’s decision to include Washington Sundar at the senior pro’s expense was the biggest trigger.

Skipper Rohit Sharma wasn’t even in Perth when the decision was made.

There are four big names — Virat Kohli, Rohit, Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammed Shami — in the Indian dressing room right now.

Shami isn’t playing this series but not being able to even join the team hasn’t actually left him in a good space.

While the senior selection committee, chaired by Ajit Agarkar, will have a say, the names in question are big enough to warrant a respectable discussion before being given the final nudge.

But unlike his predecessor Rahul Dravid, nuance isn’t exactly Gambhir’s biggest forte.

To be fair to Gambhir, Dravid didn’t have to deal with a transition this huge but he did actually tell Ishant Sharma and Wriddhiman Saha that their days in national colours were over.

Neither Ishant nor Saha were as big a star as the quartet mentioned above and they walked away quietly.

The focus has been squarely on seniors, especially skipper Rohit and Virat, for their underwhelming form.

However, Gambhir, whose appointment as head coach created a lot of buzz, is also very much under the lens.

Eight Tests since his arrival have thrown up four defeats, a draw and three victories. These are not results that the fiery opener would have envisaged.

The celebrations after saving the follow-on in Brisbane were mistaken for joy. Anyone familiar with the dynamics of competitive sport would know that the high-fives were more a display of relief.

Will his position as head coach become untenable if India don’t qualify for the World Test Championship final? The answer is a “No” at this point.

Will it be untenable if India don’t win the Champions Trophy?

Perhaps not, as both the ongoing series and the next 50-over ICC event will comprise a core that has been there for a considerable period of time.

Is the BCCI ready to give Gambhir a free hand to create a team of his own, where he would be the master planner with the likes of Jasprit Bumrah (possibly next Test skipper) and Suryakumar Yadav (T20 skipper) executing his strategy?

It can’t happen right away but it’s not too far either.

Those who know Gambhir insist that his heart is in the right place even when he takes harsh or seemingly risky calls. Nitish Reddy and Harshit Rana were his choices and they have not been bad.

But the Indian dressing room, where player power has always prevailed, requires a lot of patience from a coach to earn the trust of players.

John Wright, Gary Kirsten and Ravi Shastri were able to earn that trust but Greg Chappell and Anil Kumble, despite being legends, failed to click.

Gambhir’s situation is more like what Duncan Fletcher endured in 2011 when he took over an ageing team.

By the time the 2014 England away series concluded, India under Fletcher’s stewardship had lost 11 Tests (seven in England and four in Australia).

Shastri was appointed as Cricket Director to oversee Fletcher, which was basically aimed at sidelining the Zimbabwean.

The world remembers Gambhir for being a hero in two World Cup finals and the brain behind KKR’s three IPL trophies — two as captain and one as coach. But a lesser known fact about Gambhir is that in 2017, he relinquished Delhi Capitals captaincy midway through IPL for Shreyas Iyer.