The captain of Australia, Pat Cummins, has confirmed that the World Cup 2023 final between Australia and India will take place on an old pitch at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, the largest cricket stadium in the world. The only player who seemed unconcerned by rumors that India had changed the Mumbai pitch in an attempt to suit their spinners ahead of their semi-final matchup with New Zealand was Cummins, and he remained largely silent about the matter prior to Sunday’s summit match.
According to Cummins, the field will be the same one used for India’s October 14 match against Pakistan. Yes, I did just take a peek. Although I’m not very good at reading pitches, it seemed rather firm. At the Saturday pre-game press conference, Cummins stated, “They’ve only recently watered it, so yeah, give it another 24 hours and have a look, but it looks like a pretty good wicket.”
Upon being asked to verify whether the wicket was used or not, the tall fast bowler responded, “Yes, I believe Pakistan played someone there.”
During this World Cup, Pakistan’s only match at the Narendra Modi Stadium was against India. Although it was a fairly hard pitch, as the game went on, the ball started to stop a little bit. Pakistan had started the match well, but in the middle overs, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj rocked them from a strong position, and they were bowled out for 191.
In response, Rohit Sharma’s fearless hitting in the powerplay gave India a flying start. In 30.3 overs, Shreyas Iyer amassed a half-century and the team secured 7 wickets to chase down the target.
The toss could be a significant factor once more if the pitch behaves similarly, as the winning side would prefer to field first in order to take advantage of better batting conditions under lights. Nonetheless, Australia and India both have excellent pace attacks to create a buzz about the new ball.
According to Cummins, a fast bowler’s ability to strike the ideal mix between slower balls, bouncers, and seam-up deliveries is essential for success in Indian conditions.
“I believe that, like in a lot of ODI cricket generally, the ball swings for a few overs before it stops swinging, so you have to try to create wickets in other ways.” It isn’t always catches behind the wicket, unlike what you could see in Australia. You need to strike a balance between mixing things up and not going after too many balls.
You need to be bold with some of the balls you use, such as slower balls and bouncers. I believe we’ve got that balance pretty well, and at least here in India, things like cutters often perform perhaps better at the end of the innings than they do anywhere else in the world,” the man stated.
