Latest Updates: Australia's Strategy to Upset India in the World Cup Final | Expert Insights & Analysis

India favourites, at home, sound familiar? What's the messaging? How do you approach a final like that when you're in that situation? Yeah, I think a lot of it is your mental preparation, you know, the physical demands that they've gone through were really extreme here at the Wankhedi Stadium and a completely different challenge that Australia went through yesterday.

So, a lot of it will be about how they have a mini celebration,  have the come down, try and block out a little bit of the noise while also acknowledging the opportunity that a final presents. They have all the skill level covered, both sides do. In fact, I think Australia are probably the only side in the tournament that have, you know, a genuine chance of overturning the force that India have played in this tournament with.  So, it's going to be an incredible game.

I think the challenge for both sides is, like Nas mentioned, trying to continue with the method that they've used, both throughout the group stages and in both semi-finals.

2007 T20 WC final: Rohit
2011 WC final: Kohli
2013 CT final: Rohit & Kohli
2014 T20 WC final: Rohit & Kohli
2017 CT final: Rohit & Kohli
2021 WTC final: Rohit & Kohli
2023 WTC final: Rohit & Kohli
2023 WC final: Rohit & Kohli*

Duo will be playing their 7th ICC final tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/ZIIcVq7oV9 — Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) November 18, 2023

What Australia Think about India

Australia will be hoping that India will succumb a little bit to the level of expectation on their shoulders  and India will be hoping to continue that aggressive nature in which they dominated in the group stages and semi-finals for so long. With the balance of the side that India put out, it's worked, obviously.

Hardik Pandya's injury actually probably clarified what they could and could not do. Nonetheless, I know it was in a defeat down the road, but New Zealand looked as though they were going to target one of the bowlers.

On that occasion, it was Siraj. Is that one way that Australia can really attack India? It is, but that's easier said than done because, you know, it is the best bowling attack in the competition.

Almost forced by the Hardik Pandya injury, they were playing other cricketers that would balance the side.  Shardul Thakur came in, then they'd leave Suryakumar Yadav out.

Because of the injury, it made it crystal clear, play all your best batters and all your best bowlers. You know, I think he thinks at times you can go after Kulldeep, Kulldeep Yadav.

No side has done that yet, so New Zealand tried Siraj and they did take it to Siraj. 

The thing about this Indian side is then Shami comes back, Bumrah at the death was quite brilliant as well. And Kulldeep, the two overs, I think he bowled one for six right towards the end of that semi-final, was exceptional as well.

So I think they have to because if you let the five bowlers bowl, you're going to get a below pass score.  So I think they have to and it won't be someone like in the meeting on Saturday night, they'll say we're going after them. I think on the day, you have to sense which bowler is struggling and make Rohit do something different.

How do you sit? 

Exactly like that. On the day, try and apply the aggressive nature in which Australia can play. 

The likes of Maxwell, Mitchell Marsh, top of the order Travis Head and Warner. Apply that type of pressure and aggression to every single bowler and see who flinches first. If you find that you're getting on top of one particular bowler, it might even be Muhammad Shami. Whoever it is, when you're playing against such high quality bowling line-up, you have to sense opportunity on the day.  I've played in teams over the years where you make the decision the day before and it goes against you.

Because you pre-determine a result in sport or a performance in sport, which is impossible to do. So it's going to be a fascinating game. Historically, Australia have had fantastic results in world events, T20 but particularly 50 over World Cups. 

Does that count for anything? 

I think because a lot of these cricketers have been there and done it in big games and they've had a really good year, haven't they? They've won the World Test Championship under Cummins. 

They are a top, top outfit really. An Australian cricket and the mentality is, it's not just, well done, we've come to a final.  This era of Australian cricketers would have grown up watching the Ricky Ponting era, watching the Steve War era. And so brought up on we don't just rock up for finals and take part, we rock up to win World Cups.

We want to make this the sixth World Cup, we want to go back as champions.  So they won't bottle it. They're a tough lot. I think they have to go, someone like Steve Smith has had a quietish tournament. I think for them to win it, someone like him has to get them. They'll go hard with Warner and Head and then they'll have Marsh and the likes of Maxwell. 

But I think Steve Smith is that glue. If he can do something unbelievable, get 100, a big 100, I think they have to get above par to beat this. With bat and ball, they have to be above par to beat this Indian side.

Now the problem is that if you want to play three spinners, then there are two big issues for India. One is when you are showing 500% that this is a ranked turner, then you have to play three. That ranked turner will not be there. And the second problem is that which fast gain buzz should you drop?  Earlier when you made 15 in Shardul and Ashwin, you thought that you have to play one from Ashwin and one from Shardul.

So now you have played Ashwin. The problem here is that since Mohammed Shami has come, Bumrah Shami Siraj is a ticker. So this is what India has to think.  Can you take such a big risk in the final that the third spinner plays Ashwin and one fast gain buzz plays Siraj? Or you will say no. The way we have come to play, we will play in the same way. We will go out and out with three fast bowlers and Jadeja and Kuldeep.  

I think that you will get an idea of India's thinking tomorrow.

Because the Indian team will go to practice. When they will go to practice, we will show you the main square, the main wicket through sports. Sometimes you get an idea by looking at the color of the wicket.

What is the soil?

The second thing is that you get an idea of the dryness from that color. If the wicket is dry, then Australia will definitely get stuck. India can also get stuck with two spinners. Because Australia did not bat on the turning track. A good thing for Australia in this match is that their fast bowlers are slowly bringing the car on the track.

The fast bowlers they have gained today are great.

The conditions were also the same. But they are not going to get those conditions in Ahmedabad.

So India's team is already in Ahmedabad. Australia's team will be in Ahmedabad tomorrow.