NEWS
Follow UsWith wins in the first two matches, India have already made sure that the Border-Gavaskar Trophy stays in India. But for the side to qualify for the World Test Championship final, they will need to beat Australia 3-0, which would mean another spin-friendly wicket in Indore.
However, Indian skipper Rohit Sharma hints that if India seal the deal in Indore itself, they would be tempted to request a green-top in the fourth and final Test of the series in Ahmedabad, to simulate the conditions of The Oval. With the Indian Premier League running till May 28, India have just a week to walk into the contest, hence the preparation in Ahmedabad would be the most sensible choice.
"There is definitely a possibility of that," Rohit said. "We've already spoken about it. We need to get the guys ready for it as well.
"The important one is Shardul Thakur because he comes into that plan for us. I don't know how ready he is, knowing that he just got married. We don't know how many overs he has bowled. But yeah, that thought process is definitely there. If we do what we do here and we get the result we want, we might think of doing something different in Ahmedabad for sure."
However, Australia are still very much in contention to make it to the World Test Championship final and no way, the third Test is without significance. For India know that a slight let-up would cost them big-time, with their top-order batters being far from convincing.
"It will be a great achievement for us to reach the WTC final, but we know that we need to cross that final hurdle, and for that we need to win the next game as well, so the focus is on this Test, how we can win this game, and not look too far ahead, because after this game we've got one more Test match to be played, and then after that there's two months of IPL," Rohit said.
"There's a lot of time to think about the final, but right now it's very important for us to focus on this one and see how we can turn it around and win this game as well, because in the last game we were put under pressure for sure, we can expect the same here as well, so we need to be ready for that."
However, Rohit further shared some of his thoughts regarding the WTC final and why he expects a fair battle irrespective of the opponents.
"It'll be a different ball game, for both teams actually," the Indian skipper said. "Actually, I don't want to talk about the World Test Championship. We're not there yet. We want to win this game and then talk about it. That'll be the right thing to do.
"But just speaking of it from the outside, clearly, I don't think England is going to qualify, so both teams who are going to play the final will be neutral teams. It's going to be exciting. There's no home advantage, no conditions advantage. India have played a lot of cricket in England over the last couple of years.
“Australia have played a lot of cricket [there]. Sri Lanka and South Africa are also in the mix [South Africa are out of the reckoning]. They probably have played a lot of cricket there as well. It's not going to be alien conditions as such, to both teams who will make the final. It'll be a good contest between the two teams, whoever those teams are."
