At the Oval in London, one of the tournament favourites India take on the defending champions Australia in what promises to be fascinating, mouth-watering contest between the two powerhouses of world Cricket in the 14th match of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019.
After dominating the relatively newcomer Afghanistan in their first match, Australia showed resilience and a lot of character in bailing themselves out of the precarious situation not once, but twice against the unpredictable West Indies.
Similarly, Australia’s next opponent, India too made a promising start to their World Cup campaign, winning rather comprehensively at the end against South Africa.
Australia, who appeared lacklustre at the start of the year, have managed to bring about a massive turnaround in their fortunes following an emphatic 3-2 ODI series victory over India in India earlier this March. Aussies lost their last ODI match on March 5th against India and ever since then, they have been unbeaten up until this point, reminiscent of the Australia that once dominated the world cricket.
David Warner and Steve Smith’s reintegration into the Australian national side is making the team look much more formidable and has just provided the team with an additional boost at the game’s greatest spectacle. With an unbeaten knock of 89 for Warner against Afghanistan and resilient 73 for Smith against the Windies, the comeback men have started on a positive note and this augurs extremely well for Australia’s chances at the World Cup.
In the bowling department for Aussies, their tear-away, frontline pacemen Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins hold all the aces. Their lethal aggression and ability to rise to the situation when it matters has been the feature of their bowling so far at the marquee event.
On the other hand, in their only match at the World Cup so far, India’s bowling spearheaded by Jasprit Bumrah was pretty impressive against the Proteas. Their spinners, Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav shared five wickets between the two and were successful in holding the Proteas at bay in the middle overs.
For India, even though their top order has been a formidable force for a while now, the middle order remains to be wobbly, hesitant and untested so far. Against South Africa, KL Rahul and MS Dhoni spent some much-needed time in the middle, however, they did not appear to be at their fluent best. Just as Rohit Sharma did the other day against the Proteas, it is imperative that at least one of their top 3 produces a significant, substantial contribution almost every time if India fancies putting up big totals on the board.
India do not have significant depth in their batting and in such a scenario, the way their top 3 handle Australia’s pace battery right at the start of the innings will play a crucial role in shaping the outcome of their upcoming clash against the defending champions.
On paper, in English conditions, Australia gives us an impression of being a better, formidable side than India, but funny things do happen in sport. However, in their upcoming tussle, Virat Kohli’s men, in particular, have to be wary of Australia’s pace battery and their remarkable batting depth, which was clearly on display against the West Indies.
In their previous game against the West Indies, Australia played like the defending champions, just not willing to give an inch and showed tremendous grit, resilience and character in raising their level a notch higher when they had their backsides against the wall.
For India, their bowling unit is their trump card and their biggest asset against Australia. It would be extremely important from India’s point of view to restrict Australia’s versatile batting unit to a decent total if they are bowling first and not allow them to run away with a massive total on the board. With a patchy batting line-up which we came across against the South Africans, India would not fancy chasing big totals against a quality bowling line-up like the Aussies.
Historically, The Oval has always been a batsman’s paradise and one can expect scores in excess of 300 just as we saw in the previous encounters contested at the Oval so far at this World Cup.
All in all, an upcoming India-Australia clash promises to throw at us some fabulous stories of absorbing cricket and we can’t wait until the drama unfolds on a super Sunday.
