Former Indian head coach Ravi Shastri feels that the Australian cricket team holds a slight edge over team India in the upcoming ICC World Test Championship (WTC) Final 2023. Team India and Australia are all set to take on each other on June 7-11 at the Oval in London.
Ahead of the much-awaited summit clash, Shastri thinks that the Oval track will remain fresher than it usually is as it has never hosted a Test match in the month of June in the venue’s 140-year history.
Ravi Shastri Picks His Favorites For WTC Final 2023
As per Shastri, the former Indian head coach, who led the team to their first World Test Championship final in 2021, feels that the presence of Jasprit Bumrah would have allowed the Indian side to start evenly matched, if not as favorites. Speaking at the ICC’s ‘Afternoon with Test Legends’ event, Shastri said:
“I would say if you look at pace attack, if Bumrah was there, I would say it was equal with an attack of Mohammed Shami, Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj. But that Aussie attack with Starc, Cummins, may be the match fitness will come into play,”
It has to be noted that many of the Australian players including Pat Cummins are coming into the WTC 2023 final without any match practice as the side opted against playing a warm-up game as well.
Shastri feels that match fitness will come into play in this situation. He said:
“Match fitness might come into play. You need some cricket behind you and staying on the park for six hours for five days is different from bowling in nets for two hours every day,”
Someone like Shami Can Be The Key For India
Shastri also feels that someone like Mohammad Shami might be the key to the Indian cricket team. He said:
“Like there is Shami who might just come in and do the damage in the first half an hour because he has been playing so much of cricket. He might deny someone from settling in with his line and length,”
