Rohit Sharma-led Indian cricket team is all set to lock horns against Australia at the ICC World Test Championship Final 2023, which will kickstart from June 7th at The Oval in London. The Men in Blue will be looking forward to ending their wait of 10 years to win an ICC trophy. It has been 10 years since the MS Dhoni-led team India won the Champions Trophy event in England in 2013.
Meanwhile, ahead of the high-voltage opening day of the WTC Final 2023, Rohit Sharma has brushed aside Australia great Ricky Ponting’s remarks on the Oval’s wicket condition. Sharma has rubbished Ponting’s remarks as “his point of view” and added that it “doesn’t matter” what the former cricketers and experts have to say before such a big game.
Rohit Sharma Gave A Solid Reply To Ricky Ponting
During the pre-match press conference in London on Tuesday, Rohit Sharma was asked about Ricky Ponting’s comments about The Oval, where he said that Australia is likely to have a slight edge over team India at the World Test Championship (WTC), kickstarting on Wednesday. Responding to this, Rohit Sharma gave a solid reply, he said:
“That’s his point of view. He’s allowed to give his opinion. Only time will tell which team has used the conditions really well. You know, the people who are watching the game, the experts, they’ll have their opinion, they’ll talk a lot of things before the start of a championship like that, a build-up to the championship,”
Rohit further said that the side that handles the pressure and utilizes the conditions well will come out on top. He said: “Honestly – for us, it doesn’t really matter because we know what is at stake and we need to focus on that. And that is what the team is going to do. Whoever uses the conditions really well, probably will win the game. As simple as that. And also handling the pressure during the course of this five days because there will be times where the teams will be under pressure in this five days so you just got to adapt and handle that pressure really well to come out on top,”
What Ricky Ponting had said?
For the unversed, Rohit’s statements have come after Ricky Ponting said Ponting claimed that Australia will have a slight edge over India at The Oval as conditions are a bit more similar to the Australian wicket than the Indian wicket. He had said:
“I think it will be a bit more similar to an Australian wicket than it will be to an Indian wicket, therefore I’m giving a slight advantage to Australia,”
He added: “If this game was being played in India, I would’ve said it’s really going to be hard for Australia to win. If this game was played in Australia, I’d say Australia are the heavy favourites. The fact that this final is being played in England, it probably brings both teams a little closer together.”
Team India will be without many key players
The Indian cricket team is heading into the summit clash without many key players including the likes of Rishabh Pant, Jasprit Bumrah, and Shreyas Iyer, among others.
But Rohit said that the players in the current squad are good enough to handle the pressure. He said:
“Since the time we’ve come here, the talk has been around, how we can play well, what are the things we need to do as a team. A lot of the guys in our squad are quite experienced right now – and they have been in the situation where there was too much pressure and they’ve come out on top. So, you know, every individual at some stage of their career have faced that kind of pressure. So it’s just putting themselves in those situations and thinking about it. Whoever takes the field tomorrow has or have gone through that kind of pressure before in their career. So I don’t think I need to talk to them personally about how to handle those situations,”
