Mumbai: We’re still unsure of what the International Cricket Council and the Board of Control for Cricket in India were thinking when they announced that the slogan for the 2023 World Cup would be ‘It takes one day’.
Was it a meek request to the fans to power through eight hours of 50-over cricket instead of four hours of a T20I? Was it trying to suggest that teams should take each day on its merit?
Or, were they talking about Sunday? If that is the case, they have stumbled upon the meaning of a sentence so vague because now it will actually take one day for cricket to crown a champion.
Forty-six days have passed since the tournament kicked off on October 5 in Ahmedabad, and the circus returns to the venue, but this time around 1,30,000 people will be in attendance to witness the coronation of either India or Australia.
The game is being touted as India’s best chance at putting to rest the demons of 2003, and it could be in a way, but two decades have gone by and few have the mental bandwidth to hold onto grudges that long.
This game, more so, is an exercise in holding onto what has worked out so far and ridding yourself of what hasn’t.
This is a new era and a new wave of cricket has swept us. Both India and Australia aren’t particularly nouveau at this format, but between them, Rohit Sharma and Co have done it better, at least in this tournament with ten wins in succession.
Pat Cummins and Co, not so much. Still, Australia are here, eight-wins-on-the-trot later. They weren’t expected to be after that shoddy start and equally shabby middle, but that’s just what a team with five World Cups does.
As it stands, India look like they can handle the heat of the moment, Australia’s pedigree and everything the final will come with, but then again, ‘it takes one day’, even for Australia.
INDIA
Shubman Gill may have allayed fears, saying he was a hundred percent fit to play the final, but this he said after revealing that he was still reeling from the aftereffects of dengue so not much of a consolation that. It’s evident that he can get on the field and get most of his responsibilities out of the way, but if he is - as he admitted - feeling low which leads to cramping, he might be in a quandary should it come down to him having to go the distance.
AUSTRALIA
Steven Smith’s mental space needs to be addressed should Australia put themselves in a position to realistically challenge India. Arguably one of the greatest batters of this generation, Smith has had a rather beige World Cup by his standards - 298 runs from nine games at an average of 37.25. But it’s not the lack of runs that’s the concern, really. The very fact that he doesn’t have that air about him while walking out to bat is what’s ailing him and his footwork at the moment. Confidence is key for the likes of Smith. Will he find it?
INDIA
There may have been a doubt about who could feature in this slot a couple of games ago, but after that seven-fer against New Zealand in the semifinals, Mohammed Shami is the no-brainer choice. The best part is that everyone knows what he is going to do - seam up, attacking the stumps and throwing in the occasional off-cutter - and yet he has 23 wickets from six games at a bewildering average of 9.13 and a strike rate of 10.9. These are man-of-the-tournament-deserving numbers.
AUSTRALIA
We’re a couple of games removed from what we saw at the Wankhede stadium, but can we forget what Glenn Maxwell did to Afghanistan in that 201-run epic? No. We possibly never will. More than that, what the knock did was give an insight into the mind of the likes of Maxwell. The never-give-up kind, the kind who will throw up between deliveries and just get on with it… you know, those Australians.
PITCH/CONDITION
Who would have thought Ahmedabad could be so pleasant?! It’s just the right kind of heat and the temperatures tend to ease off further as the evening sets in. There is next to no humidity in the air, meaning there will be plenty of dew when the time comes. The pitch doesn’t reflect the state of the aerial conditions. In part because the hosts have informed the curators to make the pitch a bit sticky. Still, it will assist batting when the ball is new, but it’s going to get interesting as the ball gets old and the spinners come on.
India: Rohit Sharma (captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Prasidh Krishna.
AUSTRALIA: Pat Cummins (capt), Alex Carey (wk), Travis Head, Josh Inglis (wk), Marnus Labuschange, Steven Smith, David Warner, Sean Abbott, Cameron Green, Marcus Stoinis, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa.
India’s performance in each World Cup
1975
Group stage
1979
Group stage
1983
Champions
1987
Semifinals
1992
Round-robin stage
1996
Semifinals
1999
Super Six
2003
Runners-up
2007
Group stage
2011
Champions
2015
Semifinals
2019
Semifinals
Australia’s performance in each World Cup
1975
Runners-up
1979
Group stage
1983
Group stage
1987
Champions
1992
Round-robin stage
1996
Runners-up
1999
Champions
2003
Champions
2007
Champions
2011
Quarterfinals
2015
Champions
2019
Semifinals