Nasser Hussain, the former captain of the England cricket team, believes that India can use their past mistakes in the World Test Championship (WTC) final as valuable lessons to secure victory in the 2023 edition against Australia at The Oval.
In the previous WTC final held in 2021, India suffered an 8-wicket defeat against New Zealand in a match affected by rain.
While India’s spin duo of Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin caused difficulties for Australia in their recent Test series on home ground, they had a lesser impact in the WTC Final two years ago. Hussain emphasized that the team led by Rohit Sharma will need to approach the upcoming match with careful consideration.
“I think India, as they showed in Australia, can win in any conditions,” Hussain was quoted as saying by The ICC Review.
“It helps with the balance of their side if the weather is good and if the sun shines at The Oval, that they can go with their formula of two spinners, two seamers, and have (Shardul) Thakur as your third seamer.
“If you look back at the last World Test Championship, I think India read the conditions wrong. The lights were on all five days, it was grey, it was miserable, it was cold.
“New Zealand didn’t play a front-line spinner. India played two, and I think seam dominated, swing dominated.
“India have played some good cricket at The Oval. They beat England there last time in a really good game. I think it’s a pretty fair venue.”
Though Hussain expressed skepticism regarding the potential impact of Ashwin and Jadeja considering the prevailing conditions, he believes that the batting prowess of the duo could be a decisive factor.
With their wealth of experience, Ashwin and Jadeja have collectively accumulated eight Test centuries. Furthermore, Jadeja’s impressive score of 104 in India’s most recent red-ball match in England in 2022 highlights his ability to excel in English conditions.
“I would go Jadeja and Ashwin, (for) batting depth. Then you can bat all the way down. Then you can play your best seamers,” added Hussain.
“Jadeja bowled beautifully there against England last time. He held up an end. He got it reverse swinging for them because he hits the scuffy side of the ball as well when he bowls.
“But what they mustn’t do if it’s rainy and wet and damp and the lights are on and it’s green, then they have to change the balance of their side, which they didn’t do for the World Test Championship last time.
“I would really look at those conditions the day before and on that first morning and not be wary of leaving one of your legends out if conditions demand that.
“But great bowlers are usually great bowlers in all conditions.”
Hussain will be part of the elite commentary panel for the WTC final, scheduled to be played at The Oval in London from June 7-11. He will join the likes of Ravi Shastri, Sunil Gavaskar, Kumar Sangakkara, Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting, Justin Langer and Dinesh Karthik for the English feed of the marquee clash between the top two-ranked Test teams.
