Australia cricket head coach Andrew McDonald revealed the reason behind his team's dominant win in the recently concluded ICC World Test Championship final 2023 at The Oval on June 11. India entered the summit clash with a thumping 2-1 win in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023 earlier this year, but Australia beat them in every department to clinch a statement 209-run win.
McDonald revealed that playing in subcontinental conditions helped them win the WTC 2023. Australia toured Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and India to adapt to subcontinental playing conditions during the WTC cycle 2021-23. They beat Pakistan 1-0 in three-match series, drew 1-1 in two matches against Sri Lanka, and lost 1-2 against India.
Australia were not at their best during their intercontinental tour but according to McDonald, the experience helped them solve the tricky WTC cycle.
"You can string down series in isolation, you can talk about the subcontinent journey where we went from Pakistan to Sri Lanka into India," McDonald told reporters on June 13. "We had to navigate through that. So, it was a tricky World Test championship cycle and I think the wins in the subcontinent got us here."
"We're really strong in Australia. So I think that most people would expect us to be winning Test matches in Australia, but to be able to execute in Pakistan, win a Test match in Sri Lanka and then to get that win in Indore to secure a place in the final was vitally important to give us this opportunity.
And we've been able to take that, so it's a job well done."
Talking about WTC, McDonald highlighted that his team missed the 2019-21 cycle due to points deduction over a slower over-rate and wanted to make a strong comeback in the recent cycle.
"It's a new concept. But we're certainly buying into the concept and I think that was probably the disappointment of the first couple of years when it was in existence where we missed out due to over rate so we've made it a significant focus of ours. Every time we come into a series we're checking in around where we are, there's a ladder, albeit stretched out over two years, which is a little bit different from other sports, but yeah, it's high on the priority list.," McDonald added.
