WTC 2023 Final: Australian Cricket Team's wicket-keeper batter Alex Carey has opened up on his team's preparation and the decision not to play a warm-up game ahead of the World Test Championship final. Australia will take on India in the second final of WTC on June 7 at The Oval. The Australian team topped the WTC 2021-23 cycle as they had the highest win percentage. Meanwhile, the Men in Blue were the second-placed team and made it to the final of the Test championship in two out of two times.
Carey has opened up on his team's preparation. "The guys have all gone away and had individual programs over this (recent) period.
We have had guys playing cricket here in England. The guys at the IPL and some guys at home spending some time there," Carey was quoted as saying by ICC.
India and Australia will not be playing a warm-up game ahead of the one-off Test. Carey further added that the decision to not have a warm-up game can only be talked about in hindsight. "Coming together now we really feel the excitement heading into the Test Championship and I think it will be a hindsight thing about whether or not we should have played a warm-up match. As a player I feel like we will be ready come to that first match so I think it will be one of the things talked about after the Test match," Carey added.
The Australian team recently toured India for a four-match Border Gavaskar series in February 2023. The Aussies went down to the Indians by a margin of 2-1 but they made a comeback in the later part of the series. They were trailing 0-2 but then won the Indore Test before settling for a draw in Ahmedabad.
"We learned a lot. To be able to bounce back (from two-nil down) to win in Indore (in the third Test) showed a lot of character, and then the last Test was a draw. So we walked away with a bit of confidence, knowing we were good enough in those conditions and there were just a few areas we would've liked to have cleaned up. And now the grand final is here; this is what the last two years have led to," the wicket-keeper added.
