Australia are adamant they will be “ready for anything” India throw at themin the Cricket World Cup linkfinallinkaftercontroversy hit the tournament in a ‘pitch switch’ row.
India have been the form team of the World Cup, winning all 10 games ontheir way to Sunday’s showpiece match in Ahmedabad.
But there was controversylinkinthe lead-up to their 70-run semi-final win over New ZealandlinkinMumbai after it emerged the game was being played on a Wankhede Stadiumpitch already used twice before during the tournament rather than afreshly-prepared surface.
“No doubt playing on your own wicket in your own country has someadvantages,” Australia captain Pat Cummins told a pre-match pressconference on Saturday. “But we’ve played a lot of cricket over here.”
“We’ll be ready in terms of anything they’ll throw at us…we’ll make sure wehave some plans.”
A used pitch had no major bearing on the Mumbai semi-final, with more than700 runs scored in the game.
Cummins, asked if he had already seen the pitch for the final, replied:“Yeah, just had a look. It looked pretty firm…I think Pakistan playedsomeone there.”
India and arch-rivals Pakistan clashed in Ahmedabad four weeks ago.
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The hosts cruised to victory by seven wickets after winning the toss anddismissing their opponents for just 191.
Used pitches generally favour spinners, with slow bowling a key componentof a five-man India attack where Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja areexpected to bowl 20 of their 50 overs on Sunday.
Australia have already won the World Cup a record five times and30-year-old fast bowler Cummins, a member of the victorious 2015 side, wasexcited by having the opportunity to emulate the likes of Steve Waugh andRicky Ponting by leading the team to glory on Sunday.
“It would be huge,” he said. “We were all kids not too long ago, watchingsome of those great teams win the 1999, 2003, 2007 World Cups.”
He added: “To be captain would be an absolute privilege…it’d be awesome.-APP/AFP