"Everyone will have their moment" - Salman Butt on The Oval pitch for the WTC final between India and Australia
Former Pakistan captain Salman Butt has claimed that the conditions at The Oval for the World Test Championship (WTC) final between India and Australia will be completely different to those that were at Southampton in the previous WTC final.
In a rain-hit game, India were beaten by New Zealand as the latter were crowned the inaugural WTC champions. Rohit Sharma and Co. have reached yet another WTC final and this time, they would want to go one step better against Pat Cummins and his men.
While the conditions were pretty damp in Southampton, Salman Butt, in a video on his YouTube channel, explained his reading of how the pitch at The Oval plays. He said:
"There's a huge difference between Southampton (venue for previous WTC final) and The Oval. The Oval has the best batting pitch in England. There's even pace and bounce where batters enjoy playing their shots. There's a bit of moisture for pacers on Day 1 and the spinners come into play on Day 5. So everyone will have their moment where they have to capitalize."
Rohit Sharma on India's preparations for the WTC final
India skipper Rohit Sharma understands the importance of acclimatizing to the conditions before a crucial game like the WTC final. With there being a gap of just a bit more than a week between the IPL 2023 final and the WTC final, Rohit was recently asked how the team was looking to deal with it.
Speaking to reporters after the conclusion of the Ahmedabad Test, Rohit Sharma spoke about the importance of workload management and how they were preparing to send some players early to England. He stated:
"It's quite critical for us. We are going to keep in constant touch with all the players who are going to play that final and monitor their workload and see what's happening with them. Around 21st May, there will be six teams who will be possibly out of IPL play-off contention and so whichever players are available, we will try and find time to get them to UK early as possible."
It will be interesting to see how India compete against Australia in the WTC final if the conditions test their batters.