India ace Ravichandran Ashwin has given a worrying update on the Oval pitch ahead of the ICC World Test Championship (ICC WTC) final against Australia. The highly-anticipated match is scheduled to be played from Wednesday (June 7) at the iconic Oval in London.
Many believe that the contest between Indian batsmen and Australian bowlers has the potential to decide the outcome of the mega clash. While India boasts the likes of Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli and others in their batting lineup, Australia’s formidable bowling lineup consists the likes of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Scott Boland, Michael Neser and Nathan Lyon.
Ravichandran Ashwin on the Oval pitch:
The English conditions have traditionally assisted fast-bowlers. The swing that the pacers can extract in English conditions help them dominate the batsmen. And if Ravichandran Ashwin’s recent YouTube video is anything to go by, then one can say that apart from swing, the Indian batsmen will also have to face good bounce in the upcoming WTC Final.
The likes of Cummins and Starc can make life really difficult for the batsmen with pace, bounce and swing. A couple of days before the start of the clash, Ravichandran Ashwin gave the fans an update on the much-talked about Oval pitch. In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Ashwin was seen having a candid chat with a person, whom he refers as “Leez” also calling him the “pitch doctor”.
Here is the conversation between the two:
Leez: “Good Oval pitch”
Ashwin: “You’ve always prepared good pitches. But today, some of our guys got hit on the practice pitches. So is it going to be similar?”
Leez: “Bounce, did it bounce?”
Ashwin: “Yeah, it bounced a lot today. You don’t like me. You don’t get it to spin, right?”
“What do you think? Are you excited for the final? Can we expect a nice and bouncy Brett Lee pitch?”
Leez: “It will be bouncy. That’s one thing I can guarantee. It will be bouncy.”
Well, India also have a solid pace attack and the likes of Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj and Umesh Yadav have the ability to blow away any team on their day. All in all, one can expect another classic clash between the two giants of world cricket.
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