Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has given his side a bit of an edge over India in the upcoming ICC World Test Championship (WTC 2023) final which begins on June 7, at the Oval in London.
The revamped Test format pits the two top-ranked teams in the cycle against one another to decide the best Test-playing nation. Australia finished at the top of the table, with India qualifying by defeating them at home in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023 2-1.
This is Australia’s first time playing in the final of the WTC, while India had appeared in the previous final in 2021 but lost to New Zealand.
The Indian squad will be headed by pacer Rohit Sharma, who will try to win the Test match, and the reenergized Australian team will be led by pacer Pat Cummins.
India won the four-match series, which also featured a draw after Australia toured India earlier in the year in a fantastic Test cricket competition. India dominated the series opener in Nagpur by an innings and 132 runs before cruising to a dominant 6-wicket victory in the nation’s capital of Delhi to take a 2-0 lead.
Australia Are Slight Favourite- Ricky Ponting
Despite India coming into this Test having defeated Australia twice, Ponting feels the Australians have a slight edge over the Indians, despite them having not played much cricket before this. Therefore, Ponting feels Indian might be a bit tired from playing in the IPL and hence the Pat Cummins-led side have the upper hand.
“Australia are slight favourites. There wasn’t much between them through two years. So, that says that these two teams have beaten more opposition than they have lost to and they deserve to finish first and second.
Now, the interesting thing as far as preparation is concerned is that some of the Australians have done nothing. They haven’t been playing any cricket at all. Whereas, all of the Indians have been playing very competitive cricket in the IPL,” Ponting was quoted by News18.
“So, coming in fresh, is that slightly better or is coming in maybe slightly jaded and tired on the back of an IPL, but having played a lot of cricket leading in?” There’s a lot of factors that could play a part through the week,” he added.