CWC2023: Final - Australia v India - Team comparision & preview

 

Finally it is the grand finale World cup 2023  . The final will be played between the two giant teams  Australia  & India . All said and done probably the two best teams of the event has reached the final . India beating New Zealand by 70 runs in a high scoring event at Mumbai while Kolkata Eden Gardens witnessed a tense and a gripping semis match between Australia & South Africa in good bowling conditions and Australia prevailing by 3 wickets in a low scoring encounter .

Australia and India have played 150 ODI matches in which Australia won 83 and India 57 with 10 no results . In ODI World cups   Australia and India played 13 times in which Australia won 8 matches and India won 5 matches

We will now look into the team comparision.: 

 In batting the opening pair of Australia and India are equally good.  Rohit  giving blistering  starts by playing breathtaking shots while Gill is playing in sublime fashion for India .  For Australia both David Warner & Travis Head is playing explosively and hence playing risk ridden cricket . Performances of both opening combo has been very  good 

In middle order India definitely has an edge . Virat Kohli , the highest run getter in this event is playing solidly feeding off the starts Rohit is giving .Kohli is playing risk free cricket & taking his time to give the platform for strokeplayers to follow.  Shreyas Iyer too has played carefully at start but changed gears quickly as the slog overs approached . KL Rahul has also played in similar fashion .Later Surya & Jadeja tried to take on the bowling .

Australia middle order had their issues . Smith , Labuschagne has struggled against spin in particular and did not look as solid as the Indian middle order.  Mitchell Marsh has played some glorious knocks and has two hundreds but he too has been suspect against spin. Maxwell has scored two hundreds and played an all time great knock but he too has been inconsistent at other times . Josh Inglis too has struggled to achieve consistency .

However Australia has a much stronger lower order batting with their bowlers Starc , Cummins and Zampa has showed their batting ability down the order unlike their Indian counterparts. Kuldeep , Bumrah , Shami and Siraj are not expected to offer much in terms of batting runs .

In bowling  both in pace and spin department India has looked much better than Australia.  The Indian Pacers have regularly picked powerplay and middle order wickets and their spinners have squeezed the runs and taken wickets . On the other hand Australian quicks have struggled in most of the tournament to take powerplay wickets and it was only in the semis that they came into their own in favourable bowling conditions.  Australian spinners have both done well with Zampa being one of the highest wicket takers and Maxwell bowling tightly but still overall the Indian spin department is ahead . 

In fielding it must be said that Australia are ahead of India particularly in ground fielding . Their fielding prowess in the second semi final was one of the highlights of that game. 

Thus overall it is clear that both in batting and bowling , India hold the distinct edge . The two areas where Australia are ahead is fielding and lower order batting. 

India having won 10 consecutive games before reaching the final is looking the team to beat . Australia after losing the first two matches , won 8 consecutive games to reach the final which is a commendable effort as well but with huge crowd support and respective form India are clear favourites. 

However Australia the 5 time world champions cannot be taken lightly . They know how to win big games and will definitely challenge India in the final .

Probably the team winning the toss might bat first , this being a pressure game . However  there are chances of evening dew which might make batting easier under lights in the last phase of the game though the ball is likely to swing in early evening .

Both the teams played one match each at this venue in this World cup . While India easily beat Pakistan by 7 wickets chasing down 191 , Australia beat England by  33 runs in a hotly contested match defending 286 . 

Only 5 months ago these two teams have met in the WTC ( World test Championship) 2023 final with the same two captains and Australia registered a resounding win over India . Will India be able to avenge that defeat in this final or will Australia create history by winning both the finals in the same year ? 

We shall know within 24 hours .

Thus all in all a huge final awaits us and all roads leads to Ahmedabad stadium.