Australia captain Pat Cummins believes that the Ahmedabad pitch will be a “good wicket” for the batters in the World Cup 2023 final, where his side will face the home team, India, who are undefeated in all their 10 matches in the tournament.
The captain and coaches of both India and Australia had their look at the pitch on Saturday at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. It has been confirmed that the pitch for the final will be the same pitch that was used for the India vs Pakistan match last month.
Pitch report: Pat Cummins expecting a high-scoring match in the IND vs AUS final in Ahmedabad
India won that match by 7 wickets after bowling Pakistan out for 191, and there wasn’t really much help for the bowlers in the second innings. Cummins is expecting a high-scoring game in the final.
Speaking in the press conference in the evening, Pat Cummins said: “Again, I’m not a great pitch reader, but it looked pretty firm. They’ve only just watered it, so yeah, give it another 24 hours and have a look, but it looks like a pretty good wicket.”
“Yeah, hard to know, I think it’s been a bit more high scoring here throughout the tournament. Yeah, it’s been a pretty good wicket, so yeah, hard to say.”
However, the Ahmedabad pitch curator had contrasting views to Pat Cummins. The Ahmedabad pitch curator suggests batting first and putting up a total of 315 runs would most likely result in a victory.
Speaking to PTI, an Ahmedabad pitch curator said “if a heavy roller is being used on a black soil strip then the idea is to create a slow batting track where you can get a big score but you possibly can’t consistently hit through the line. 315 could be a defendable score as batting second will be difficult.”
India captain Rohit Sharma, too, differed in his opinion about the pitch to Pat Cummins. Sharma reckons the pitch in the final will be on the slower side.
Rohit said: “The pitch will be on the slower side; always nice to see pitch on day of the match and then assess. Yes, temp has dropped a bit here since India-Pakistan game.”
