India and Australia will clash in the much-awaited World Test Championship final (WTC) at London's iconic The Oval starting on Wednesday, June 7. There is not much difference between the two teams going into the most important Test match of this year as both teams seemed well prepared.
Australia suffered a big blow in the form of Josh Hazlewood's injury while India are missing their premier pacer Jasprit Bumrah. India dominated the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023 at home prior to the IPL 2023 and will take big confidence from that to produce another dominant performance over Australia in the next five days at The Oval.
Pitch Report - IND vs AUS, WTC Final
The pitch at The Oval has a bating-friendly surface in red-ball cricket but this is the first time the match is being played in the month of June. Spinners have faired well at The Oval comparatively other iconic venues in England. But the early reports are suggesting a good amount of green grass on the surface for the upcoming match. So, the pacers are likely to dominate the match and teams will prefer bowling first.
The green surface is likely to produce extra bounce for both pacers and spinners in the first two days of this Test. Weather reports suggest clear skies for the first three days with a temperature hovering around 20 degrees Celcius but there is rain forecast on the weekend.
Will Toss Matter?
Not likely. There is not a considerable difference in teams' winning more or fewer matches while batting or bowling first at The Oval. Teams batting first have slightly faired better with 38 wins in 105 Test matches played here. However, teams will prefer bowling first if the pitch turns out green on Wednesday.
The Kennington Oval, London- The Numbers Game
Basic Test Stats
- Total matches: 105
- Matches won batting first: 38
- Matches won bowling first: 29
Average Test Stats
- Average 1st Innings scores: 343
- Average 2nd Innings scores: 304
- Average 3rd Innings scores: 238
- Average 4th Innings scores: 156
Score Stats for Test matches
- Highest total recorded - 903/7 (335.2 Ov) by ENG vs AUS
- Lowest total recorded - 44/10 (26 Ov) by AUS vs ENG
Full Squads -
India Squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Srikar Bharat (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Jaydev Unadkat
Australia Squad: David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Cameron Green, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Scott Boland, Josh Inglis (wk), Todd Murphy, Michael Neser, Marcus Harris
