Former Australia captain Ian Chappell believes that the Australian pace attack in English conditions will offer Australia an advantage in the World Test Championship final (WTC) against India in the absence of pacer Jasprit Bumrah and wicket-keeper batter Rishabh Pant. Notably, The Oval in London will host the WTC final beginning on June 7.
Prior to the WTC final, there are further injury concerns in the Indian camp besides those involving Bumrah and Pant. The top match would not feature Shreyas Iyer or KL Rahul, among other athletes.
Chappell thinks that India, who would have been the favourites if Bumrah and Pant were well, could suffer as a result of the injuries to Bumrah and Pant. He also asserted that India’s performance could be harmed by the absence of Hardik Pandya, who last played a first-class match in 2018.
Ian Chappel said
“The injuries to Jasprit Bumrah and Rishabh Pant badly affect India, as they would be outright favourites with these two playing. The somewhat surprising unavailability of allrounder Hardik Pandya also harms India, as he could have provided them with the final piece of the jigsaw puzzle,” the Former Australian player said.
He continued by saying that the fact that many of the Indian players who were selected for the WTC final roster will be playing in the Indian Premier League (IPL) for the previous two months would make things much more challenging.
He also remembers how excellent Ravi Bopara was in the Caribbean in 2009, where he had a stellar performance in the Test series between England and the hosts, the West Indies, following his participation in the IPL season.
“To make matters even more difficult, many of the players involved have only competed in the IPL in the lead-up to the one-off Test. While this may not seem to be the ideal preparation, it’s worth recalling the opinion of former England batter Ravi Bopara. In 2009, Bopara went from the fledgling IPL into a Test series against West Indies and reckoned he was ideally prepared because T20 got his feet moving and put him in a positive frame of mind,” he added.
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