In addition to taking on the tournament’s best team, India, in their best possible form, Australia’s largest task in the World Cup 2023 final will be handling the anticipated 1.3 lakh spectators at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. When it’s nearly as packed as it was for the group-stage match against Pakistan last month, the world’s largest cricket stadium is one of the most intimidating locations to play cricket against India. It should be full for Sunday’s big final. 1 lakh 30 thousand people, mostly in blue, cheering every move of Virat Kohli or every step of Jasprit Bumrah is a nightmarish thought for any opposition and if it’s as big as the World Cup final then it gets doubly difficult.
But such environments are nothing new to Australia. In their home games against India, the blue shirts have outnumbered the yellow ones. Of course, Sunday’s game will have far higher stakes and a larger attendance than any other cricket stadium in the world, but Australia’s captain, Pat Cummins, stated that his team is more than willing to take on the challenge.
“I think you’ve got to embrace it,” he said during a press conference on Saturday. Taking a cue from past Australian captains like Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting, Cummins said his target would be to silence the packed crowd in Ahmedabad. “The crowd’s obviously going to be very one-sided but it’s also in sport there’s nothing more satisfying than hearing a big crowd go silent and that’s the aim for us tomorrow. Yeah, you’ve just got to embrace every part of it, every part of a final even you know in the lead-up there’s going to be noise and more people and interest and you just can’t get overwhelmed. You got to be up for it, you got to love it and just know whatever happens it’s fine but you just want to finish the day with no regrets,” he added.
As far as Australia’s XI for the final is concerned, Cummins said all-rounders Marcus Stoinis and Cameron Green are being discussed and a final call will be taken by Saturday night.
“Potentially yeah, those are things (Stoinis and Green’s inclusion) we weigh up before every game. We’re lucky, we’ve got a 15-man squad who we feel anyone can step in and perform. They’re all ready to go. So, like every other game, we go through a process where coaches get together and chat through what they think or how they think the game’s going to go about and then the selectors obviously pick the final 11,” he said.
