When: Sunday, November 19, 2023, 2pm (08:30 GMT)
Where: Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad, India
Australia captain Pat Cummins says his team must “embrace” the challenge of facing India, a 130,000-plus Ahmedabad Stadium and the will of 1.5 billion people.
The 30-year-old will lead his side out against the Cricket World Cup hosts on Sunday for a final against and strong favourites India.
“You’ve got to embrace it, the crowd’s obviously going to be very one-sided,” Cummins said.
“Also in sport, there’s nothing more satisfying [as an opposition player] than hearing a big crowd go silent and that’s the aim for us.
“You’ve just got to embrace every part of it, every part of a final – you know in the lead-up there’s going to be noise and more people and interest and you just can’t get overwhelmed.
“You got to be up for it, you got to love it and just know whatever happens it’s fine but you just want to finish the day with no regrets.”
Captain Pat Cummins inspects the pitch ahead of the final 🔍#CWC23 #INDvAUS pic.twitter.com/ymBAK5o8x6
— ICC (@ICC) November 18, 2023
The right-arm seamer, 30, has been much needed with the bat, including in the semifinal against South Africa.
The spotlight of facing the hosts in the final is not something that holds any fear for Cummins or his team, as most play alongside the Indian players in the Indian Premier League.
“We play over here in India a lot so the noise is not something new,” he said.
“On this scale it’s probably bigger than we would have experienced before but it’s not something totally foreign.
“Everyone deals with it slightly differently – you see Davey (Warner) probably dancing and winning the crowd over, other guys just staying in their own bubble – it should be good.”
Australian legend Jason Gillespie told Al Jazeera in his preview of the final that while India are a great side, they are still “ripe for the taking”.
The hosts have won all 10 games to this stage including their opening match against Australia where they recovered for the loss of three early wickets with only two runs on the board to chase down 200.
“It’s going to be awesome,” said Cummins. “They’ve been playing really well, undefeated this tournament.
“But we know at our best we can give them a good shake.”
Australia beat India in the World Test Championship in England earlier this year ahead of their Ashes tour which they retained by drawing the series.
This would mark quite the remarkable hat-trick for Australia and quite the double over India.
In return, the disappointment of the Test Championship final at the Oval for India would be erased – probably a billion-and-a-half times over.
Head to head
India have won 57 of the ODI meetings between these sides while Australia have claimed 83 victories.
The most famous being the 2003 final in Johannesburg, which the Aussies won by 125 runs.
The last 10 meetings are split equally but the hosts do have the group-stage victory at this year’s tournament.
Form
Both teams are now flying at the World Cup. Australia recovered from defeats in their opening two games to win eight consecutively.
India are a perfect 10 at the tournament so far – but will the final be their “banana skin”?
India: W W W W W
Australia: W W W W W
India team news
India will only make a change if a late injury occurs. It would be tempting for the hosts to pick spinner Ravi Ashwin, were it not for the injury that ruled Hardik Pandya out of the second half of the World Cup.
Without the allrounder to balance the side, India have no choice but to stick with the three seamers that have served them so will since Pandya limped out of the third match of the tournament.
Predicted XI: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj.
Australia team news
Australia are likely to be unchanged, but it’s possible they may opt for Marcus Stoinis if the decide to go with an extra allrounder and remove one of the recognised batters.
Predicted XI: David Warner, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Josh Inglis (wk), Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins (c), Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood.