WTC Final 2023: The Australian team has turned their focus on fielding, especially slip catching, ahead of the World Test Championship against India, starting on June 7 at The Oval. The performance of Australia’s slip fielders, especially Steve Smith, was below par in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. With India coming into the game after playing white-ball cricket in Indian Premier League, the Australian team is pretty confident that Team India will not be able to adapt to Test mode easily and consequently produce more chances at slips.
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Australia’s regular slip catchers Steve Smith, David Warner, and Usman Khawaja were seen practicing slip catches in the team’s practice session on Monday.
Meanwhile, Josh Hazlewood, who has been ruled out of the WTC Final, was also seen in the practice sessions, observing the players.
IPL Changed Monopoly Of International Cricket On Players’ Time: Cummins
Ahead of the final, Australia skipper, Pat Cummins talked about the impact of IPL on the players’ schedules. Cummins said that International cricket doesn’t have a “monopoly” on players’ time anymore due to IPL.
“It’s been coming for a while, but I think it is here now,” Cummins was quoted as saying by Sydney Morning Herald.
“International cricket doesn’t have a monopoly on players’ time, like it did in the past. The IPL changed that a decade ago, but there’s just going to be more and more content that creeps in, so I think we’ve got to be proactive about that.”
The Aussie skipper expressed that he wants his teammates to consider national duty over anything else but said that would be a challenge.
“We have to keep making playing for Australia as special as we can, keeping a high performance to get every single player wanting to play for Australia as much as we can. That’s going to be the challenge.
“I think it’s upon us now, and we’ve got to start thinking about that quite deeply. I think fast-forward a few years time, a 12-month international calendar might look a little bit different,” said Cummins.
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