Hello and welcome to this blog about the upcoming World Test Championship (WTC) final between India and Australia at the Kennington Oval, London from 7th to 11th June. In this blog, I will be talking about the campaigns of each of these two teams and also write about the team combinations, Probable XI and much more
INDIA
After the 2021 WTC heartbreak, the Indian team replied strongly by coming to the WTC final for a second time. Having faced initial setbacks with a series loss in South Africa and also a captaincy crisis when Virat Kohli gave up his captaincy. However, since then, with a great home season, India stormed their way back with wins with Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and squared the series in England with a formidable English team. They finally confirmed qualification to the WTC final again courtesy of a series win with Australia at home.
Now talking about the WTC final, India would go with Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma as their openers, where the former has had a fantastic IPL and Rohit Sharma showed signs of form in the latter half of the IPL. Chesteshwar Pujara, fresh from the County Championships, Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane would follow up the openers and are the main players for India for building the innings together and posting a good score. Srikar Bharat, who still hasn’t shown his capabilities, could put up a good show with the bat and also behind the wickets. Ashwin and Jadeja, the spin brothers can spin a web around the Australian batters. Mohammad Shami, Siraj and Jaydev Unadkat (only if fit, otherwise Umesh Yadav) make up a great pace brigade which can challenge the Aussie openers with the new ball. The player to watch out for is Ajinkya Rahane, who has come back strongly with the bat in the IPL after being dropped from the test squad for a year he will hope to be a part of the Indian playing 11 in future tests and also give his team a great score for the ultimate test.
Probable XI: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Chesteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, KS Bharat (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammad Shami, Jaydev Unadkat, Mohammad Siraj.
Ajinkya Rahane would love to make a strong comeback to cement his spot in the Playing XI
AUSTRALIA
Having come 3rd last time around due to an over-rate penalty in the 2nd test with India, Australia just never had any obstacles in this cycle of the WTC final, getting crushing wins with England, South Africa, Pakistan and the Windies at home before suffering a series defeat with India. But due to the dominance they had before the India series, they just needed one win and they managed to do it in Indore.
Talking about the WTC final, David Warner and Usman Khawaja make up a strong opening pair for the Aussies as the latter had a great tour in India. Labuschagne, Smith and Carey can play out many overs to frustrate and tire the Indian bowlers after the 20th over or so. Travis Head and Green are hard hitters and can give their team a great flourish towards the end and also score runs quickly. Cummins, Starc and Bolland can bulldoze the Indian batting with their accurate seam presentations and Nathan Lyon, the speciality spinner can single-handedly spin a web around the Indian batters.
The player to watch out for is Travis Head, and it would be interesting to see his approach with spin and also would love to back his aggressive batting to decimate the Indian bowlers.
Probable XI: David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Cameron Green, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Scott Bolland, Nathan Lyon.
It will be interesting and entertaining to see Head’s approach to the Indian attack in the ultimate test.
Hope you enjoyed the preview of the biggest test match this year held in London. There will be a blog coming soon on the upcoming Ashes series held in England so stay tuned…