Former Australia World Cup-winning captain Ricky Ponting believes that the Australia team has an edge over the Indian team going to the World Test Championship final in Oval. The 48-year-old believes that the England condition might favour the Australian team.
As India qualified for the WTC final for the second time in a row, Australia will make its debut appearance in the finals. In BGT 2023, Rohit Sharma-led side won the four-test match series with a margin of 2-1 against Australia in India.
Speaking to the media at an event organized by ICC, Ricky Ponting feels that Australia will be the favorite going into the WTC Final, as the condition would help Australia’s style of gameplay and reckons that England being the venue it can closely contest between both the teams and asserted that Oval conditions would be similar to that of Australia and so the Baggy Green team will have a slight advantage over Men in blue.
“I would have to say Australia is the favourite. I am going more with Australia because of the conditions. If this game was played in India, I would say this was a really hard game for Australia to win. If this game was played in Australia, I would say Aussies are the heavy favourites,” Ricky Ponting said.
“The fact that this game is being played in England probably brings both sides a little bit closer together. Having played at The Oval a fair bit, the conditions will be much more similar to an Australian pitch than an Indian wicket. Therefore, I am giving a slight advantage to Australia,” he added.
World Test Championship will be a big opportunity for India to end India’s drought in ICC events as the Indian team won their last ICC event in the 2013 champions trophy in England and it will interesting to see whether the Rohit Sharma-side adopted the England condition quickly to give a stiff challenge to Australia.
It’s Hard One. A Lot Of It Comes Down To The Individual – Ricky Ponting On Player’s Work Load
Ricky Ponting feels that Workload management is a hard thing to comment on as it depends on the individuals as most Indian test players are part of the ongoing Indian Premier League. Meanwhile most of the Australian Test players not participating in the IPL, will come with better preparation than India for the finals.
“It’s a hard one. A lot of it comes down to the individual. I am sure if you ask Virat, he will say he would rather be scoring runs now. If you ask the fast bowlers, they will probably say that they will prefer to have a couple of weeks of rest. It works both ways,” Ricky Ponting added.
India will take on Australia in the 2023 WTC Final at Kensington Oval on June 7, 2023, with a reserve day on June 12. Team India lost the inaugural edition of the WTC Final in 2021 against New Zealand at Southampton.