LONDON: Former Indian captain Virat Kohli will be looking forward to make merry as India prepare to take on Australia in what would be their second successive ICC World Test Championship final here at the The Oval from tomorrow,
Kohli, who regained form across all formats from late 2022 onwards, must be keen on piling more runs against an opponent he loves to score.
In 24 Tests against the Baggy Greens, Kohli has scored 1,979 runs with eight centuries and five fifties, with 186 as his top score. Throughout his career, the Delhi batsman has played 92 matches against Australia and has scored 4,945 runs at an average of 50.97 with 16 centuries and 24 fifties.
Kohli loves to score against Australia but it remains to be seen how he fares against the Aussie quickies as India will be hoping to see him score big and carry on their winning momentum against their opponents.
Recently in the home series, India won against the Aussies who, however, showed grit and determination to expose the weaknesses of Indian batting lineup against spinners Nathan Lyon and Matthew Kuhnemann.
The Oval wicket is known to assist the seam bowlers and India will have to deal with Pat Cummins and Scott Boland but it is left-arm Mitchel Starc, who can be tricky on this wicket. It was not surprising to see the Indians spent most of their time at the nets playing left-arm pace.
Jaydev Undakat, net bowler and a local pacer gave the batters plenty of practice with their left-arm bowling.
In the two-and-a-half-hour session, Rohit along with coach Rahul Dravid took an overview of the proceedings and only took throw downs after all the main batters had a long hit at the nets.
India need to decide whether they are going to play two spinners or a fourth pacer. The choice is between Ravindra Jadeja and seasoned campaigner Ravichandran Ashwin.
Another tough choice for Dravid would be to pick first-choice wicket-keeper between KS Bharat and Ishan Kishan.
The experts are divided: Kishan has better batting abilities while Bharat did well behind the stumps against the Aussies in the Feb-March home series.
Indian cricket lovers will have to wait till the final practice session to know India’s playing eleven.
(By Aminul Islam)
