World Cup 2023 Final: 'It's same for both teams' — Pat Cummins plays down pitch talks, aims to silence Indian fans
World Cup 2023 Final: 'It's same for both teams' — Pat Cummins plays down pitch talks, aims to silence Indian fans
Australia captain Pat Cummins has played down the pressure of playing a Cricket World Cup final and the talks surrounding the pitch at the Narendra Modi Stadium pitch for the summit clash. The 2023 Cricket World Cup final between India and Australia will be played at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday. Around 1,30,000 fans are expected to be present in the stadium for the match, the majority of whom will be cheering for Rohit Sharma-led Team India.
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Also, a grand closing ceremony including an air show by Indian Air Force in front of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been planned.
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Cummins, however, is not worried about a partisan crowd and said that his team is going to bank on their previous experience. The Aussies skipper added that the five-time champions have a lot of players from the 2015 World Cup-winning squad who are well aware of what it takes to win a mega final.
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“We have played in India before so noise is not something new. Someone like David Warner would be dancing…while some could be in their own bubble,” Cummins said in the pre-match press conference. “It’s an even match. There are 6-7 guys who won in 2015, so they know that feeling and won’t be afraid to go out there be brave and take the game on.”
He added that the aim of his team was to silence the Indian crowd.
“The crowd’s obviously going to be very one-sided but it’s also in sport there’s nothing more satisfying than hearing a big crowd go silent and that’s the aim for us tomorrow. Yeah, you’ve just got to embrace every part of it, every part of a final even you know in the lead-up there’s going to be noise and more people and interest and you just can’t get overwhelmed. You got to be up for it, you got to love it and just know whatever happens it’s fine but you just want to finish the day with no regrets,” he added.
The Australian captain confirmed that the final will be played on the same pitch that was used for the India vs Pakistan game in Ahmedabad. Cummins said the pitch will be the same for both teams and it is not a concern for him.
“Again, I’m not a great pitch reader, but it looked pretty firm. They’ve only just watered it, so yeah, give it another 24 hours and have a look, but it looks like a pretty good wicket,” he said.
“It’s obviously the same for both teams. No doubt playing on your own wicket in your own country has some advantages, similar to wickets that you’ve been playing your whole life. But we’ve played a lot of cricket over here.
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“So, yeah, we’ll wait and see. I think, of all the venues, perhaps this venue – the toss isn’t as important as, say, a Mumbai Wankhede Stadium or other venues. So, we’ll be ready in terms of anything they’ll throw at us. Yeah, we’ll wait and see, but we’ll make sure we have some plans.”
Australia also faced India in the group stage which was the first match of the tournament for both sides. Australia were bowled out for 199 in that game before India won by six wickets.
The fast bowler admitted that his team wasn’t up to the standards in the Chennai game but has a history of doing well against the current team.
“They’ve certainly played really well this World Cup. I think we certainly didn’t – I don’t think we scored par in that first game but we’re one catch away from potentially being in front of that game. We won an ODI series here early on in the year. There’s lots of moments we can draw on where we’ve had success against, you know, a really good Indian side,” Cummins said.
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