'We saw few cracks when we played India in Chennai': AUS star's striking 'weaknesses' remark ahead of World Cup final

Sunday will be India's 14th World Cup meeting with Australia. India have won only five of their previous 13 meetings.

India kept their unbeaten streak alive in 2023 World Cup to qualify for the final for the fourth time in history and first since their triumphant run in 2011. India will now be up against Australia, who beat South Africa in the semifinal on Thursday in Kolkata, in the blockbuster final on Sunday in Ahmedabad. Ahead of the summit clash, an Australian star described the home team as as a side with "no real weaknesses" although he admitted that the team did witness a few cracks in the Indian line-up during their league-stage match in Chennai at the start of the tournament.

An Australia star has his say on the Indian line-up ahead of the World Cup final

India had kicked off their World Cup campaign on October 8 against Australia in Chennai. Opting to bat first at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, the five-time champions bounced back from an early loss of Mitchell Marsh for a duck as David Warner and Steve Smith stitched a steady 74-run stand. However, the spin trio of Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin ran riot through the remainder of the line-up as Australia were skittled for just 199 in 49.3 overs.

India, however, incurred a horrifying start to the chase with pacer Josh Hazlewood picking three quick wickets in his opening two overs dismissing Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer all for a duck.

Ahead of the final on Sunday, Hazlewood hinted that he would want to emulate the same to put India under pressure early on in the final.

“We got one in the series, lost that 2-1, but no, we’ve played them a lot of times. We know them inside out, same with them. “They’re a quality team, they’ve been on a march the whole tournament, no real weaknesses in their team, so, yeah, look forward to playing them on Sunday. I guess we saw a few cracks when we played them in Chennai chasing a small target, we were lucky enough to get a couple early,” he said.

Virat Kohli and KL Rahul later had put on a stellar 164-run stand as India bounced back to complete the chase with 8.4 overs to spare.

Sunday will be India's 14th World Cup meeting with Australia. India have won only five of their previous 13 meetings. Only one of which have come in a knockout game, in 2011. India lost their two previous knockout match against Australia, one of which was the 2003 final in Johannesburg.