ICC WTC Final: The rivalry between India and Australia has taken the next step. The two cricketing giants have been engaged in staggering games of late in Test cricket and have given their fans immense joy. However, there’ll be new spice to the rivalry this time as they will lock horns in the final of the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final. The mega event will take place at the Oval, England from the 7th to the 11th of June and it remains to be seen who will emerge at the top this time around.
ICC WTC Final: Dinesh Karthik Predicts India’s bowling attack for the World Test Championship Final
ICC WTC Final: The World Test Championship Final is around the corner and there are many speculations about the XI that India will field in the game against Australia. While have many have backed them to play both the spinners, a few say that they should go with four pacers and one specialist spinner due to English conditions.
Also, there have been a lot of talks about the pace attack India will play because of the seamers that they have in the team. The likes of Mohammed Siraj, Mohammad Shami, Umesh Yadav, Shardul Thakur, Jaydev Unadkat and Mukesh Kumar (stand-by) will be fighting for the four places in the team.
Dinesh Karthik believes that Mohammad Shami and Mohammed Siraj will be key bowlers for India in the ICC WTC Final. He also pointed out that Jasprit Bumrah’s absence will be a huge miss. Speaking on ICC Review, he said:
“Jasprit Bumrah is a huge miss for any team and in any format as he’s a force to reckon with… but a couple of key bowlers are in great form in Mohammed Siraj and Mohammad Shami who have bowled really well throughout the IPL.”
Dinesh Karthik feels that Shardul Thakur will be the third pacer along with Shami and Siraj as he can swing the ball early on and is also handy with the ball. He also admitted that it’ll be a headache for team management to play one between Umesh Yadav and Jaydev Undakat in the XI for the ICC WTC Final. But he backed left-arm pacer to play due to variety.
“They have Shardul Thakur in the squad, who I’m pretty sure has a great chance of playing, while the fourth (seaming) option again will be between Umesh Yadav and Jaydev Unadkat. As we sit here again, there are a couple of injury issues, a little bit of cloud over their participation, so it’s going to be interesting to see which way they go. But you do get the feeling they could go to the left-arm medium pacer because they would want a variety in their attack.”
On playing two spinners in the ICC WTC Final, Dinesh Karthik admitted that they did a blunder to play both the spinners in the last final against New Zealand. He said that it will be a bold call if they will play both spinners but they need to look at conditions.
“I think it will be a very brave call to even play two (spinners) – Ashwin and Jadeja together.”
Here’s Dinesh Karthik’s Indian bowling attack for the ICC WTC Final:
Mohammad Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur, Jaydev Undakat, R Ashwin/ Ravindra Jadeja.
ICC WTC Final: Indian squad for ICC World Test Championship Final
Here’s the Indian squad for the WTC Final
Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Ishan Kishan, KS Bharat (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat.