ICC World Cup 2019, India vs Australia: A clash of Titans

Referring to this performance of Australia’s at the press conference here at the Oval on Saturday, India’s vice captain Rohit Sharma said he always takes a match against Australia very seriously.

If there is one thing the Australian cricket team knows how to do at 50-over World Cups, it is to win. All the talk coming into the 2019 edition was that Australia, five-time champions and the current holders of the trophy, weren’t the dominant team they once used to be. After their leadership (and best batsmen) had been felled in one swoop in January 2018 — former captain Steve Smith and former vice-captain David Warner were banned from international cricket for a year due to their involvement in a ball-tampering scandal — the repercussions were felt all the way until the dawn of their World Cup campaign. ((ICC World Cup 2019: Full Coverage))

File image of India skipper Virat Kohli and his Australian counterpart Aaron Finch (Getty Images)

Even when Smith and Warner came back from their bans just in time for cricket’s biggest tournament, it was widely felt that their sudden return could have an unsettling and disruptive impact in the dressing room. And in a tournament with many favourites, Australia wasn’t counted as one of them.

That impression changed quickly, by just their second match where Australia showed the world, and their next opponents India, why on this stage they are still the team to beat.

On Thursday, Aaron Finch’s side were four down for close to nothing on the board against heavyweights West Indies. But Nathan Coulter-Nile, a bowler who has never batted above number eight, and playing in just his second World Cup match, hit a 60-ball 92 and Australia won a match they had all but lost. Referring to this performance of Australia’s at the press conference here at the Oval on Saturday, India’s vice captain Rohit Sharma said he always takes a match against Australia very seriously.

“It is their attitude in big tournaments that I respect the most,” Sharma said in Marathi. “Just see how they turned that game against the West Indies. That is why they are always a challenging team.”

Sharma will also perhaps be aware that at World Cups, Australia don’t lose very often. In the 40 matches that they have played on this stage in this millennium, Australia have lost a grand total of three matches.

One of those was to India, and because it was the quarterfinal of the 2011 edition, Australia were out of the tournament and it was the only World Cup they did not win since 1999.

So, here we are then, on the eve of a battle between the only two teams to have won World Cups in this century. But if Virat Kohli and his men know their history, they will know that India have beaten Australia at World Cups just once since 1992. And the last time they met, at the 2015 semi-final in Sydney, they snuffed out India’s promising campaign. But on Saturday, Sharma was insistent that the past really doesn’t matter to this Indian team. “What we have done in the past is the past,” he said. “We, as a team, totally believe that we have to be better on that particular day of the match. That’s all.”

But what about the recent past, he was asked, where Australia toured India in March and won the five-match series despite being 0-2 down. “Yes, they played really good cricket in India but we also played very good cricket in Australia (which India won 2-1 in January). So, overall if you see, it has been a good contest between bat and ball and the rivalry has been strong,” he said. “But like I said, the past is the past. So, we will focus on the game rather than the record we have in the past. I guess, it is the same for them as well.”

It isn’t, because when Australia captain Finch was asked if history will have a bearing on Sunday’s fixture, he agreed. “Yeah, I think winning the last three games (in India) is really important for us. We got some self belief that we can beat this Indian side,” said Finch. “Whenever you’re playing India, you have to believe that you can beat them because they’re a world-class side. They’ve got some all-time great players, no doubt about that.”

Finch was also asked what it was like to have Smith and Warner back just in time for the campaign. “To have these worldclass players to come back, yes, it’s great for the side, and our batting lineup, and for experience in World Cups, and great help for me as a leader as well,” said Finch.

But here he paused, and seemingly realised that he was an Australian captain at a 50-over World Cup and added: “But I think we’ve always believed that we’ve got a side that can win the World Cup. Even when we didn’t.”