You’ve got to play the best cricket: Rohit Sharma speaks on India-Australia rivalry ahead of WTC Final

The 2021-23 cycle of the World Test Championship (WTC) will culminate with a grand final between India and Australia, the match set to commence on June 7th at the Kia Oval in England. 

The India-Australia rivalry is one of the most keenly anticipated series on the cricket calendar, and while the former has dominated the contests between the two nations, Pat Cummins’ men will pose more than just a stiff challenge in the upcoming WTC Final. 

India might have won all four preceding editions of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, with Australia’s series win coming back in 2016/17, but Rohit Sharma’s men will certainly have their task cut out in England conditions, where the Australians will have a slight upper hand. 

Speaking on a special Star Sports show ahead of the WTC Final, India captain Rohit Sharma shed light on the rivalry, saying, “It goes back a long way. We’ve had a good rivalry against Australia, whenever you play against them, you know what you’re up against, you’ve got to play the best cricket to get the result in your favour.”

He also referred to the previous edition of the BGT which India won 2-1 and said, “The last series we played in India was a good series, both teams fought hard and now we’re here.”

The 2023 edition of the WTC Final will be Australia’s first appearance in the summit clash, having agonisingly missed out on sealing the berth in 2021. 

Cummins shared his thoughts on making the final this year, saying, “It’s something we’ve spoken about in the last couple of years. I think being the inaugural championship, it wasn’t that much spoken about until we saw the final and thought ‘we wish we were there’. It’s great, we feel like we’ve played some awesome cricket over the last few years and we deserve to be in the final.”