As the Indian team inches ever closer to their blockbuster clash against Australia in the World Test Championship Final at the Oval, former Indian opener Wasim Jaffer has highlighted Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill as the two players who will hold the key for India in the summit clash.
The former cricketer feels it will be a stern challenge for the Indian openers to thwart a quality Australian fast bowling unit in English conditions as there is considerable sideways movement on offer for the seamers. Although Australia will be without their star pacer Josh Hazlewood for the final, Jaffer feels that Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins will pose a great danger to the Indian batters, especially the openers, with their speed and accuracy.
“Openers will have to play a massive role. England is the most challenging place to bat because of the sideways movement. Conditions change so drastically because of the weather. It changes quickly. The duke’s ball also poses a lot of problems. As the ball gets old, it will keep swinging and also starts to reverse. With Starc and Cummins, running at 145 kph, it is going to be challenging,” Jaffer said to The Indian Express.
Things are looking good but the only concern is that they have played so much T20 cricket: Jaffer
Commenting on India's preparation for the much-anticipated clash, Jaffer displayed concerns over the lack of practice matches. The former opener feels that it might be challenging for several Indian players to adapt to the match as they are heading into the contest on the back of two months of T20 cricket. Apart from senior batter Cheteshwar Pujara, none of the Indian batters have played any red-ball game since the conclusion of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
“Things are looking good but the only concern is that they have played so much T20 cricket in the past two months and for them to adjust quickly, that is going to be a challenge without having any match practice only four or five days of preparation. I am sure nowadays cricketers have learnt to make that switch very quickly,” Jaffer concluded on the matter.
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