Feels like unfinished business
When it’s India vs Australia, sides with some history between them, a one-Test WTC final seems too little
A one-off Test is not even an appetiser. Five days can feel like a lot when two mismatched teams run into each other. But when India and Australia — two sides with some history between them — are playing each other, one Test, even if it is the final of the World Test Championship, is too little.
The most fascinating aspect of a Test series is how it strips the players of all the accumulated layers of superficiality and exposes the very core. Many players go into a series thinking they are prepared but by the time the series ends, they know that a serious rebuild is in order.
Over the course of a longer series, the technique of a player is laid threadbare, the gaps become that much more obvious as do the strengths. This is as true for batters as it is for bowlers. This is precisely what makes the longer format the ultimate test in the eyes of many cricketers.
“In the last three, four years it’s been unbelievable. It’s been so entertaining,” Australian batter Marnus Labuschagne told The Guardian in an interview. “The 2019 Ashes was an unbelievable series. Australia v India in Australia, really good series. We just had a pretty good series in India on some diabolical turning wickets and then you go New Zealand v England, Pakistan v England. I mean, the game’s coming alive.”
And it’s coming alive simply because Test cricket forces you to question yourself and gives you the time required to do so. In T20s, you swing and hope. In Test cricket, you wait, watch and then, at long last when everything has fallen in place, move forward. This difference makes it unique in the cricket world, where everything seems to be headed towards the shorter, more manic route.
Of course, not everyone plays
Test cricket in this manner these days. England, with the attacking Bazball strategy, certainly don’t. Many of the younger T20-inspired cricketers like the faster rate too but the format still has time for Cheteshwar Pujara and Steve Smith; it still has time for you to find your place at your pace.
“The Australian team will be talking about Virat, no doubt about it, and they’ll be talking about Pujara. They’re the two,” Ponting said on The ICC Review. “Pujara has been a thorn in their side a lot in the past, and in Australia,
and this wicket will potentially be a lot more like an Australian pitch. They know that they’ll have to get him early.
“They also know that Virat over the last few weeks is probably just about back to his absolute best, albeit in T20 cricket. He told me that the feeling he’s getting right now is that he’s almost back to his best, and that’s an ominous warning for the Australians going into a one-off game.”
The words ‘one-off game’ sting but perhaps not as much because the World Test Championship final almost feels like a continuation of the recent India vs Australia series that ended in March.
That series had started off with India dominating the first two Tests (winning in Nagpur by an innings and 132 runs and in Delhi by 6 wickets) but then against the odds, Australia fought back to win the third Test in Indore by 9 wickets.
The pitch for the fourth Test was placid and the match ended in a draw.
India won the series, but by the end it seemed as if Australia had got stuck in. It was a story that you could really sink your teeth into. But just as the series was getting really interesting, it ended.
In that sense, the WTC final feels like a decider too; it feels like unfinished business; it feels like the fifth Test. In an ideal world, a one-off Test shouldn’t decide a world title because acclimatisation will play a huge role in England as well. And The Oval is a ground that neither side has a great record on.
In 38 matches at the venue, Australia have won just seven times. In 14 matches, India have just two wins. Still, that neutrality, that lack of home advantage might be crucial given that this is a one-off.
Given the short period both teams will have to get ready for the final (they will only get access to the practice facilities at The Oval two days before the match), preparation could be the key.
In that regard, India have a steeper hill to climb when one considers that a majority of their players were part of the IPL till very recently. Australia, by comparison, had only Cameron Green and David Warner playing in the league.