Following an intense two-month schedule of the Indian Premier League (IPL), the Indian players are now set for their upcoming challenge, i.e., World Test Championship (WTC) Final, where they lock horns with Australia. The highly anticipated match is scheduled to take place at The Oval, with the pitch expected to offer significant support to the seamers.
Going by that assumption, many cricket experts have opined that India should go with four seamers and a lone spinner as their bowling combination for the summit clash. However, legendary Sachin Tendulkar holds a contrasting view and reckoned that Rohit Sharma should utilise both Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja in the mega contest.
Tendulkar explained that the nature of the pitch at The Oval tends to assist spinners as the match progresses, meaning that spin bowlers are likely to have a significant role to play in the game. Though the batting maestro clarified that it (pitch) wouldn’t be a rank turner due to bounce, spinners can extract that from the surface or the slight deviation they can generate off the pitch.
“The Indian team will be happy that they are playing at the Oval. The nature of the Oval pitch is such that it assists the spinners as the match goes on. So, spinners will come into play a little bit. It need not be always a turning track as sometimes the spinners rely a lot on the bounce, sometimes that little bit of zip that they get off the pitch, also on the overhead conditions and it depends a lot on the shiny side of the ball,” said Tendulkar as quoted by 100mbsports.
Tendulkar also highlighted the significance of the drift that spinners can achieve at The Oval. He observed that if the spinners can effectively generate drift at this venue, they can make the ball “talk” in the air.
“If they are able to get that drift, they can make the ball talk in the air without the pitch coming into play. So, Oval is going to be good venue for India,” added Tendulkar.
