World Test Championship Final: Long haul

London, June 4

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India captain Rohit Sharma said one never feels set as a batter in English conditions but somehow develops an intuition as to when to attack the opposition bowling.

Ahead of the World Test Championship final against Australia starting Wednesday, the Indian skipper said that there is no substitute for hard grind on the English tracks. Rohit has enjoyed the best batting average in his team (50 plus) since the inception of the tournament.

“I think, in England in general, it’s pretty challenging conditions for the batters. As long as you are prepared to have a good grind, you can have success,” said Rohit, who scored his only Test hundred outside the subcontinent at The Oval in 2021.

Rohit, who was India’s best batter in four Tests in 2021 against England, spoke about his personal experience. “One thing I realised in 2021, you are never in (set) and the weather keeps changing. You need to keep concentrating for longer periods of time and you will get that intuition when it’s time to take on the bowlers. More importantly you need to be out there and you have got to understand what your strengths are,” the skipper said.

Better to stay bit underdone: Cummins

Australia captain Pat Cummins doesn’t mind staying a bit undercooked going into the high-octane WTC final rather than playing two months of T20 cricket and ending up jaded for a gruelling English summer.

When asked if the bulk of the Australian side (save Cameron Green, David Warner in IPL and Marnus Labuschagne in county cricket) would be a bit rusty with virtually no game time since the India series, the skipper begged to differ. “Breaks are rare to come by,” he said. “I have always said, with six Test matches (including five in the Ashes), it is better to be slightly underdone than overdone. I am talking from a bower’s point of view. So I want to be physically fresh. Back home, we did a lot of training. We have trained hard, rejuvenated and refreshed and are keen,” he added.

Terming the pitch as a good one with a lot of bounce, Cummins is confident that his team has enough bowlers to exploit the conditions. “You need to know your moments to push for wickets. We need to get 20 wickets and there is no point trying everything in the first innings. We have plenty of bowlers to be used at different times,” Cummins said.

Hazlewood out of final

Australia fast bowler Josh Hazlewood has been ruled out of the final with Scott Boland set to replace him in the playing XI.

Hazlewood played only three games in the recent IPL after a side injury flared up while he also grappled with a left Achilles issue. The 32-year-old was hopeful of playing the final but was replaced by Michael Neser in their 15-man squad though Boland is likely to be Australia’s third fast bowler alongside Cummins and Mitchell Starc. Agencies