Indian cricketers were recently free from IPL 2023 after 29th May. Then the players of the 15-member team started leaving for London for the final of the World Test Championship to be held from 7 June. During this, now the team has hardly 8 days left for training. Meanwhile, the ICC has decided to have the Dukes ball in place of Kookaburra for this grand match. On this, now a player of Team India has told that he was practicing Duke Ball since the middle of IPL. Therefore, it would not be wrong to say that the players of Team India were playing IPL, but somewhere the practice for the WTC final had already started.
Star all-rounder Akshar Patel stated this and said that it is difficult to adapt to the longest format by playing in the T20 format. Practicing with the red ball during the IPL will help in adjusting to the final against Australia. Most of the players in the Indian team will enter the WTC final after playing T20 cricket in the IPL for more than two months. Apart from this, where SG balls are used in Test cricket in India, the Dukes ball will be used in the WTC final. India, however, is well prepared for the twin challenges. The Indian team has worked on adapting to the Dukes balls used in England.
Talking to International Cricket Council (ICC), Akshar said that, we knew about it even before the start of IPL, so during IPL also it was discussed that we will bowl with red ball. We had red balls so we were using them. You know when and how to play, how much time you have. It is difficult to make the mental transition from white ball to red ball but we have got enough time. We are transitioning from white ball to red ball. This is similar to changing from SG to Dukes ball. You have to use your talents and skills. You have to execute your plan and find your bowling rhythm. Whatever the ball, if you bowl with the right line and length, it works. That’s what we’re doing. The match is in England, where the conditions are different from India, so we are planning which line and length will work here.
Let us tell you that the first batch of Indian players reached London at the beginning of last week which included players like Virat Kohli and Akshar. Akshar said those who could not qualify (for IPL playoffs) got more time. So I don’t think there will be any problem as we have enough time to prepare. The difference is Dukes ball shines longer but during IPL we imported the ball so we were practicing with it and got used to it.
Team India: Rohit Sharma (captain), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, KS Bharat (wicketkeeper), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Akshar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Ishan Kishan (wicketkeeper).
Standby: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Mukesh Kumar, Suryakumar Yadav
Team Australia: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis (wk), Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy, Steve Smith (wk) Vice Captain), Mitchell Starc, David Warner.
Standby: Mitchell Marsh, Matthew Renshaw
