Follow UsIndia will take on arch-rivals Australia in the summit clash of the World Test Championship at the Oval starting June 7, and Rahul Dravid, the Head Coach of the side, feels the focus and the hype on the Ashes is a good thing for the team.
The former Indian skipper shared insights on his expectations from the marquee clash and believed that the team that plays consistent cricket for the period of five days would emerge as champions.
"Look, whatever will happen will happen in those five days. Anything that happens before or after doesn't really make a difference. Who is the favourite, who isn't, when two good teams with good players play, whichever team performs well over the five days, will win," he said in a press conference ahead of the game.
"I have full hope that if we play good cricket, and we have the ability, we have the players that can pick 20 wickets, can score runs, I have full hope that we can win this. The hype not being there might be a good thing," he further added.
India have failed to cross the final hurdle in the ICC tournaments on a number of occasions, but Dravid stated there is no pressure on the team to win ICC championship despite their last win being in the 2013 Champions trophy.
"No, not at all. I mean, we don't feel any pressure in terms of trying to win an ICC trophy. Of course, it would be nice to do it. It's certainly nice to be able to win an ICC tournament. But also in the context of things, you look at this, and you see this is the culmination of two years of work. It's a culmination of a lot of success that gets you here."
"So there's a lot of positives to take from that to see where you stand on the table, winning series in Australia, drawing series here, being very competitive everywhere this team has played in the world over the last five or six years."
"Those are things that will never change just because you have or you don't have an ICC trophy. That's really the bigger picture. But, of course, it's nice to be able to lift any game of cricket you want to win. This happens to be like a World Test Championship final, and it would be nice to get them on the right side of the result," he added.
The 50-year-old also felt that the result of one game would not define the format and the way forward for Indian cricket, and it would not be apt to compare this final to the 1983 World Cup win at the Home of Cricket.
"I don't think you can compare the two. That was a long time ago, and ODIs and T20s are still the new formats of the game. Test cricket has been around a really long time, and I'm not sure one match is going to transform things or change things drastically, irrespective of whichever way it goes."
"Test cricket faces unique challenges, it's a fantastic game which faces some challenges, which is not necessarily going to change by the result of one game," he concluded.