Veteran wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik has fired a timely warning to Team India ahead of their crucial first innings with the bat in the ongoing ICC World Test Championship (WTC) Final against Australia at the Oval, London.
India will start their second innings on the backfoot after Australia finished their first innings with a huge total of 469. Asked to bat first, the Pat Cummins-led side recovered from a shaky start to post the 450-plus total. Australia were reeling at 76 for 3 in the second session on day 1 of the Test before Travis Head and Steve Smith put them in the driver’s seat by scoring centuries.
Head and Smith added 285 runs for the fourth wicket and their partnership ended on day two when Mohammed Siraj dismissed the former for 161. Smith also complete a sublime century before Shardul Thakur sent him back for 121. India did well to restrict Australia to below 500 runs by taking some quick wickets on the second day.
Dinesh Karthik’s warning for Team India:
Team India will have to come up with a strong reply with the bat to keep alive their hopes of winning the WTC title. The Indian batsmen will have to face a formidable Australian attack as they look to score a big first innings total. And while Australia have the likes of Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc in their ranks, Dinesh Karthik believes the bowler who will be the toughest to deal with for the Indian batsmen in Scott Boland.
Soon after Australia’s innings ended, Dinesh Karthik took to Twitter to warn Team India, writing: “The more I watch this test match , i feel SCOTT BOLAND will be the toughest bowler to face for the Indian batters”
The more I watch this test match , i feel SCOTT BOLAND will be the toughest bowler to face for the Indian batters #WTCFinal #WTCFinal2023 #CricketTwitter
— DK (@DineshKarthik) June 8, 2023
Boland has a reputation of extracting help from lifeless pitches. The right-arm pacer has the experience of getting results from pitches that provide little assistance to the bowlers and it could come in very hand on the Oval pitch. The pitch has not assisted the bowlers as much as everyone was expecting and Boland can turn out to be the key for Australia.
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