The 48-game ICC World Cup 2023 tournament is coming to an end with the final match on Sunday between hosts India and five-time champions Australia. The match will be held at at the 130,000-seat Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, the largest cricket stadium in the world.
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Tomorrow’s match will be India’s fourth appearance in the World Cup final. They have won two of their previous three, beating the West Indies in 1983 and Sri Lanka in 2011. Australia have won the World Cup five times before and are set to play a tournament final for the record eighth time.
As per reports, the Narendra Modi Stadium pitch surface will be the same as the India-Pakistan match, which is good to both batters and fielders. The teams on Sunday will play on the slow pitch, which will be the same pitch as the India vs Pakistan game played last month, the Indian Express reported.
The pitch will be sluggish and the ball after pitching will take its time to reach the batsman’s bat. On Sunday, the team batting first and with 315 runs on board can see an advantage as batting second might be difficult.
“Around 315 runs could be a defendable score as batting second will be difficult,” a pitch curator in Ahmedabad told PTI on Friday.
The curators have kept two strips ready for the clash between India and Australia. As per news reports, none of them are in the centre. The surface that is likely to be used for the final is towards the right of the ground.
The Narendra Modi Stadium has hosted four matches in the tournament so far, including the opener. The pitch hasn’t been very run-supportive. The highest total is Australia’s 286, which England failed to chase and was bundled out for 253.
This is in contrast with the pitch during the IPL, where the track has been quicker and has aided run-scoring.
Pitches have been in focus after India was accused of changing the track for the semifinal between India and New Zealand from a fresh to a used one in the Wankhede Stadium.
On November 17, two senior BCCI’s chief of ground staff Ashish Bhowmick and his deputy Taposh Chatterjee, along with former India seamer and BCCI’s GM (Domestic Cricket) Abbey Kuruvilla, closely monitored the pitch preparations for the mega final on November 19, PTI reported.
“If heavy roller is being used on a black soil strip then the idea is to create a slow batting track where you can get a big score but you possibly can’t consistently hit through the line. 315 could be a defendable score as batting second will be difficult,” the state association curator explained.
India captain Rohit Sharma and head coach Rahul Dravid on Friday inspected the pitch at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
Batting coach Vikram Rathour, bowling coach Paras Mhambrey and fielding coach T Dilip were also with them.
On Friday, Rohit Sharma and team had an extensive net session with reserve players Ishan Kishan, Ravichandran Ashwin and Prasidh Krishna.
IND vs AUS final, World Cup 23: Probable playing XI
India (IND): Rohit Sharma(c), Ishan Kishan, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul(w), Shubhman Gill, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj.
Australia (AUS): David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Steven Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Cameron Green, Alex Carey(w), Glenn Maxwell, Pat Cummins(c), Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Adam Zampa.
