As India gear up to take on Australia in the mouth-watering ICC World Test Championship final (ICC WTC Final), legendary Sunil Gavaskar has named the batsman who can play a key role for the Rohit Sharma-led side.
India and Australia will lock horns in the much-anticipated clash at the Oval in London from June 11. Australia and India finished the ongoing ICC WTC cycle as the top ranked sides. Australia qualified for the ICC WTC final for the first time while India will be playing it for the second time in a row. In the maiden WTC final, India were up against New Zealand and ended up on the wrong side of the result.
And as Rohit Sharma and his teammates prepare for the crucial clash, Sunil Gavaskar believes that Cheteshwar Pujara could make things a bit easy for other Indian batsmen. While most of his India teammates were busy playing in the recently-concluded Indian Premier League (IPL), Pujara was plying his trade for Sussex in the English County Championship.
Interestingly, he shared the dressing room with Australia batting mainstay Steve Smith. Smith has an average of more than 90 at the Oval and could play a decisive role in the upcoming ICC WTC final. Team India would definitely love some inputs on the Australian batsman from Pujara.
“The fact that he is been around will mean that he will have also seen how the pitch has been behaving at The Oval. He might not have played at The Oval, he might be in Sussex not too far away from London but he will have kept an eye on what is happening and his inputs will be invaluable as far as the batting unit is concerned or even as far as the captaincy is concerned,” Sunil Gavaskar told Star Sports.
“He will have the captains here as far as the Oval pitch is concerned and don’t forget he has also been captaining the team, so he definitely will have worked out quite a few strategies seeing that Steve Smith, the Australian is his teammate at the moment,” he added.
Sunil Gavaskar’s advise for Team India:
Speaking further, Sunil Gavaskar had a piece of advise for Team India’s batsmen who recently played in the IPL. The former India skipper stated that the players will have to adjust their bat speed ahead of the WTC final. Gavaskar also stated that the batsmen need to play as late as possible in the English conditions.
“I think they are going to look at their bat speed. Coming from T20 where the bat speed is very fast to Test cricket where the bat speeds got to be a lot more control, that is something they’ll need to do,” Gavaskar told Star Sports.
“They’ll need to play in England as late as possible to allow for the swing to do it’s bit, not to reach out for the ball which often a lot of people make the mistake having played on good pitches.
“Wherever you play on good pitches, you tend to play through the line, not necessarily half volleys, but in England those deliveries can move just that little bit. So, I think those are the things that as a batter you need to watch out for,” he added.