New Delhi: Fourteen of the 15 Indian players who will compete in the World Test Championship (WTC) final were involved in the IPL, which took place in April and May. Only David Warner and Cameron Green represented Australia in the IPL, while Michael Neser, Steven Smith, Marcus Harris, and Marnus Labuschagne have been playing county cricket.
In less than two days, India and Australia will face each other off for the championship match at the KIA Oval in England. Beginning on June 7th and the question that arises is which teams will hold the edge over each other?
Most players of Australia’s WTC final team haven’t played competitive cricket since the four-match Test series in India finished in early March. Since the series, no team has played any Test cricket.
While several Australians, notably Ricky Ponting, are unsure, Australian captain Pat Cummins is certain that a break will benefit his squad, especially because the WTC final will be followed by the five-Test Ashes series, which will be completed in five weeks.
“Yeah, they [breaks] are rare to come by,” the Australian captain said.
“So, yeah, we try and take a break when we can. I’ve always said that we have got six Test matches in the next two months, I’d much prefer to be slightly underdone than overdone. That’s from a bowler’s point of view. I always feel like it doesn’t take too much to kind of get ready. And then I want to make sure I’m fresh physically for the matches.” Pat Cummins said.
Cummins opted out of the IPL this year, a choice he made before leaving India after the first two Tests due to family reasons. Cummins claimed his squad was ready for India after arriving in London “refreshed” from a three-day training camp in Beckenham.
“We have had some really good training at Beckenham the last week,” he said. “Obviously back home, we did a lot of training as well. So everyone’s come in, we’ve trained really hard, everyone’s rejuvenated, refreshed and pretty keen.” the pacer said.
Ponting said minutes earlier at the same event that he wasn’t sure which team was better prepared, but he gave Australia a “slight” advantage because of the more Australia-like conditions at The Oval, where the bounce is good, the square boundaries are long, and the forecast is for lots of warm weather.
“As far as preparation is concerned, some of the Australians have done nothing – they haven’t been playing any cricket at all,” Ponting said.
“At least all the Indian guys have been playing very competitive cricket in the IPL. So coming in fresh without any cricket, is that better? Or is it coming in maybe slightly jaded, slightly tired on the back of an IPL, but having played a lot of cricket leading in? So there’s lots of factors that could show up through the course of this week.” Former Australian captain concluded.
‘Talk to yourself and be psychologically prepared,’ says Rohit Sharma.
The Indian players will have to switch from the white Kookaburra to the red Dukes, but Rohit Sharma believes this is not a new challenge for the modern players. Instead, he believes that the team’s younger members should concentrate on the cerebral side.
“If you’re going to play, this is something that you have to come up with mentally. You got to be adaptable, adjust whatever little tweak you need to do in your technique,” he said. “But more than that, I think it’s just talking to yourself and getting mentally ready. Lot of the other guys in the squad haven’t done that because we’ve got a lot of new faces in the squad as well. The Indian captain said.
“For me, it’s just been really talking to myself, getting mentally ready, because that is something that a lot of us have been doing for many years.” The Indian opener said.
“As we know that this is probably one of the best batting wickets as well,” he said.
“You get value for your shots, the square boundaries are quite quick. So it’s just about giving yourself the best chance of having success, which is to concentrate for longer periods of time.” He concluded.
(Written By- Utkarsh Rathour)
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