‘Series win against Australia in 2021 is our biggest highlight in last few years’

LONDON: Ahead of the World Test Championship (WTC) final, which begins on Wednesday, Indian captain Rohit Sharma said that his team’s series win against Australia in 2021 in their rival’s home territory is the “biggest highlight” for the team in the last few years.

“The biggest highlight for us in the last few years has been winning in Australia. After losing the first Test, the way we came back, it showed the depth and strength of our team. We were missing some senior players, there were injuries, but a lot of youngsters stepped up,” the Indian skipper said at the event organised in London ahead of the WTC final.

The India players, most of whom played the recently-concluded IPL will have to make the switch from the white Kookaburra to the red Dukes, but Rohit feels this challenge is no longer new to the modern-day player. Instead, the youngsters in the team should focus on the mental aspect, he said.

“If you’re going to play, this is something that you have to come up with mentally. You got to be adaptable, adjust whatever little tweak you need to do in your technique,” he said.

“But more than that, I think it’s just talking to yourself and getting mentally ready. Lot of the other guys in the squad haven’t done that because we’ve got a lot of new faces in the squad as well.

“For me, it’s just been really talking to myself, getting mentally ready, because that is something that a lot of us have been doing for many years.”

Rohit also spoke about the challenges batters face while playing in England.

“England, in general, is pretty challenging conditions for the batters, but as long as you are prepared to have a good grind, you know, you can have some success as a batter,” he said.

“One thing I realised batting [in 2021] was you are never in actually because the weather keeps changing a lot. So you have to keep concentrating for longer periods of time and that is the challenge of this format. You know, you’ll get that message or you can get that intuition when your time to take the bowler on and that is when you should be ready for it and more importantly, you need to be there.”

And if you maintain that focus, Rohit said it can be easy to make runs at The Oval.

“As we know that this is probably one of the best batting wickets as well,” he said. “You get value for your shots, the square boundaries are quite quick. So it’s just about giving yourself the best chance of having success, which is to concentrate for longer periods of time.”

‘Australian side not affected by poor record at The Oval’

Meanwhile, Australia skipper Pat Cummins admitted that his side is not affected in any way by their poor Test record at The Oval, where it has won only two Tests in the last fifty years.

Out of their 38 matches at The Oval, Australia has won only seven, lost 17 and drawn 14. With a win percentage of 18.42, this is one of Australia’s worst-performing venues across the world. In the last fifty years, they have won two (in 2001 and 2015).

“Not really (if the poor record at The Oval bothers his team). Our playing group has not played a lot of those matches. Our side is experienced. We have played some Ashes matches here. Some of our guys have scored runs. It has a similar pace, bounce to many Australian venues. We hope to get that same pace, bounce in the WTC final,” said Cummins.

Australia missed out on the final of the first WTC in 2021 due to a slow-over rate penalty, which saw their points being reduced. Cummins said that initially, it was not something much talked about in the group.

“But when we saw the final (between India and New Zealand), we realised what we had missed. It has been a driving force for us during these last couple of years. We have played some really awesome cricket during this time,” said the Aussie skipper.

“At home, we have been formidable, except against India, who defeated us twice. We have a lot of experienced players, some players at the top of their game despite being at the twilight of their career. It is going to be interesting playing at a neutral venue,” added Cummins.

On the lack of cricket played before the WTC final as compared to India, whose players played a lot of IPL recently, Cummins said that from a bowlers’ point of view, he would prefer to be “underdone” than “overdone”, to stay fresh.

“We have been having a great time training. The team is fresh and rejuvenated,” added Cummins.

Cummins said that Test cricket is the top format of the game and he loves it. “It drains you mentally and physically. It tests you in every aspect as a player. You have to pick yourself, dust everything off yourself more than any other format,” added Cummins.