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India vs Australia WTC Final Prediction, Kennington Oval, London, July 7-11, Pitch Report and Playing 11
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India vs Australia WTC Final Prediction: India and Australia will play the ICC World Test Championship Final from July 7-11th at Oval, London.
India will once again be going to be in the hunt to get a hand on ICC major tournament trophy, which they failed since the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy, but after that, India was never able to win any major ICC trophy again. In the last WTC Final, India lost to New Zealand quite easily by 8 wickets to hand over a WTC Trophy to Kane Williamson’s side after their dominating play in the finals.
In the last WTC Final, the Indian team looked down as they had already given up their hope to win the final as their shoulder were down and players were looking tired. Once again, after a long, busy IPL schedule, players need to switch off the T20 mode and get themselves on to Test mode, which is necessary. They are going as an underdog to win this test because most of the squad had a tiring T20 IPL season, and on the other hand, many top Australian players have not featured in IPL because they were more determined to win the WTC Trophy, and Ashes, which were going to happen after the WTC Final.
Rohit Sharma will lead the side this time in the final, and everyone hopes that India does perform in the match well because their stats on the Oval ground is not good, and they will be facing the best pace bowling side in the swinging condition, which gives lots of struggle to Indian batters.
The great legend Sunil Gavaskar gave a bold statement in one of the cricket show that India will dominate Australia because of their amazing batting and also said that the Oval is good to bat on, which is going to help Indian batters to score runs.
“I’m backing India to out-bat Australia because if you look at the Indian batting lineup, at number 8 we have Ashwin who has five Test hundreds and the Oval is generally a very good pitch to bat on. You win the toss, put up a big score on the first two days, then you don’t have to bat in the second innings,”
Sunil Gavaskar said in the Star Sports show in IPL 2023
India and Australia played their last test series against each other in which India won the series of Boarder Gavaskar Trophy by 2-1. Australia gave a tough fight to India on their own soil, but once again, it was totally in the Indian condition, where spinners dominated the whole game. It will not be the same in the Oval because it favors pace bowlers more.
The Australian team will be the favorite to win the match in the final of WTC because their major players have not participated in the IPL and gave themselves more time to prepare for the final of the World Test Championship.
Pat Cummins will lead the side for Australia, and he was the first player who refused to take part in the IPL. That was a huge blow for the Kolkata Knight Riders because he was one of the best pace bowlers.
The Australian most successful batter and Captain Ricky Ponting said that Australia would be the favorite to win the final because of the condition as it will be close to the condition of the Australian pitch, which is quite true, and another major thing is Australia’s has a better pace bowling unit.
Ponting also said that Cheteshwar Pujara would be the key batsman for India as all other players were on IPL song; Pujara has been playing county cricket in England for the last 2 months, and right now, he is the top scorer in the division. He scored 545 runs in 5 matches and will be the best batter to know the condition of the pitch.
India vs Australia WTC Final: Test Head-to-Head Record
India and Australia played 106 matches in which Australia had the upper hand winning 44 matches out of 106, but recently, India came strong and till not win 32 matches.
India has the upper hand in the last 10 matches against Australia as they won 5, and Australia won just 2 matches in the last 10. The three test matches were drawn, including the last match in India.
The last match was a high-scoring game in which Virat Kohli was awarded the Player of the Match after his 186 runs innings. Shubman Gill scored a century from India’s side in that match. Ravichandran Aswin was the top wicket-taker from India’s side after picking 25 wickets in 8 innings.
From the Australian side, Usman Khawaja and Cameron Green scored a century to put up a huge 480 runs totals for India. Nathan Lyon was the top wicket-taker from Australia as he took 22 wickets in 6 innings.
India vs Australia WTC Final: Test Match Pitch Report of Kennington Oval, London
| Match Played | 105 matches |
| Batting first won | 38 matches won |
| Batting second won | 29 matches won |
| Average 1st innings scores | 343 runs |
| Average 2nd innings scores | 304 runs |
| Average 3rd innings scores | 238 |
| Average 4th innings scores | 156 |
| Highest Team innings total | 903/7 Declare by England |
| Lowest Team innings total | 44/10 by Australia |
Kennington Oval, London, is one of the best pitches in England as it gives something to everyone, but it is more favorable to Pace bowlers rather than spinners. The pitch favors more bowlers in the 3rd and 4th innings as it gets drier and deterred by that time.
Pace bowlers will get a swing at the start of the innings, but after 11 am, batsmen will look to score runs in the first innings till the last session of the day. Until the 3rd day, the batter has the great opportunity to score runs because the ball bounce stays the same, and there are not many cracks open up for bowlers to use to get turn and seam.
From day 4th, the spinners will be in the game, and both sides will have quality spinners, especially the Indian side, but till then, the pace bowler and batters of India need to perform well.
India and Australia Record at Oval, London in Test Match
India has played 14 test matches at Oval, London, in which they won just two, lost 5, and 7 matches ended up being drawn. The good news for India is that in the last match at this ground, India won the match against England by 157 after giving a dominating performance.
Australia played their first test match at the Oval in 1880, and till now, they played 38 test matches on the same ground. They won 7 out of 38, but in the last 50 years, they just won 2 matches and lost 17 matches. They lost their last match at the same venue against England by 135 runs.
Team Preview of Indian Test Squad
Most players of the Indian test squad are coming off an exhausting IPL season, and many players got only a week to get themselves to adapt to the England weather condition. All the players except Pujara need to switch off their T20 style of play and get into a grove of Test format where Batter needs to leave the ball which is outside off rather than going for smash, which they did in the whole IPL season. The bowlers must be consistent with pace and length rather than using slow delivery and yorker lengths.
Indian teams will not be the favorite to win the match because they struggled with the swinging condition in England before, but the good thing is they won their last match at the same venue they are going to play the final against Australia.
There are still talks going on as to which Wicket keeper should be in the playing 11. Many suggested Ishan Kishan can play the role of striker as Pant did in the last series against Australia, and few said that they should give a chance to Bharat, who is consistent with scoring.
Key players from India’s side in the Final
1- Virat Kohli will be the key batsman for the Indian team. All he needs to do is give himself time on the pitch and then start playing his shots because he has been getting out most outside the off stump, and Pat Cummins has dismissed him 5 times after scoring only 82 runs. However, his numbers at the Oval are not that good but decent, and in his last match at the venue, he scored 94 runs in 2 innings. He has been in good form since last year and once again looking in his prime.
2- Rohit Sharma had an awful IPL season and also had a bad season with the bat in test matches, as he scored only one century in his last 6 matches. He scored 242 runs with an average of 40.33, but in the last match at the Oval, he scored a century and also became the player of the match in that game. He played 11 matches against Australia in which he scored 650 runs with an average of 34.21
3- Mohammed Shami won the purple cap in T20 and will be the key bowler in the swinging condition. He does have better figures against Australia, as he picked up 40 wickets in 11 matches. He played only one test match at Oval ground in which he took two wickets. He is one of the best bowlers who can swing the ball on both sides and also can use the reverse swing.
4- Shardul Thakur still doubts if he is going to get a chance in the playing 11 or not, but many experts suggested that Thakur should be in the squad because he performed quite well in England and especially at Oval in the last test match they played against England. He scored 117 runs in that match to give a stronghold to the Indian team at the lower order. He was the game-changer player in that match else. It would be hard for India to win the match. He also had a great figure against Australia, scoring 67 runs with the bat and taking 7 wickets in his debut match.
Team Preview of Australia Test Team
Australians are coming as the favorite to win the WTC Final against India at the Oval ground because the condition is quite similar to Australia’s, with extra bounce and swing at the start of the match, and later, the spinner gets their chance to grip the ball and take wickets when the pitch gets drier.
In Australia, many players have been practicing for a long time for the Final and Ashes, which is why they did not take part in the IPL. The leader Pat Cummings said that he is happy to overdo rather than underdone, which is what most of the Indian players are.
Most Cricket legends said that Australia would be the favorite to win, but some Indian experts said India could dominate the game with the bat, but for that, they need to be hungry for the runs.
Key Players from the Australian side in the Final
1- Steve Smith will be the most important batter from the Australian side as he has an amazing record at Oval, London. He played 9 matches, scoring 627 runs with an average of 48.23. His highest score on the ground is 162 runs, and he also has 4 half-centuries to his name. After West Indies, he has the best average against India, which of 65.07. He scored 1887 runs in 18 matches against India. However, Ashwin is the one bowler who troubled Smith from time to time and dismissed him 8 times.
2- Pat Cummins can be a dangerous bowler for any side, but against India, he has an impressive record. In the 12 matches, Cummins took 46 wickets, averaging 25.46. He is the captain of the Australian team and will be looking to give a captain performance in the final. He has a good figure at Adelaide Oval ground as he took 15 wickets in 4 matches.
3- Marnus Labuschagne has been Australia’s pillar since he debuted in England. He has the best average at Oval, London, scoring 563 runs in just 4 matches with an average of 80.43. He also scored 708 runs in 9 matches against India, averaging 47.20.
It will be an amazing contest between both sides, and any team can win because it will be a neutral surface for both sides.
Probable Playing 11: India Vs Australia in WTC Final
India Probable Playing 11
Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Ishan Kishan (Wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj, Mohammed Shami
Australia Probable Playing 11
Usman Khawaja, David Warner, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Cameron Green, Alex Carey (Wk), Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins (C), Nathan Lyon, Scott Boland
