Australia captain Pat Cummins has urged his players to embrace playing in front of a parochial Indian crowd in the final of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup on Sunday.
The five-time Cricket World Cup champions will be aiming to add to their already bulging trophy cabinet when they take on India on home soil in front of 130,000 people in Ahmedabad and Cummins knows the vast majority of those fans will be cheering against his side.
But rather than being overawed by the occasion at Narendra Modi Stadium, Cummins wants his players to use the partisan crow to their advantage when possible when the World Cup crown will be decided on Sunday.
“The crowd is obviously going to be very one sided, but in sport there is nothing more satisfying than hearing a big crowd go silent and that’s the aim for us tomorrow,” Cummins said on Saturday.
“You’ve just got to embrace every part of a final.
“Even in the lead-up, there is going to be noise and more people and interest and you just can’t get overwhelmed, you have got to be up for it and you have got to love it.
“And just know whatever happens, it’s fine. You just want to finish the day with no regrets.”
Australia entered the final on the back of eight straight wins, with their streak somewhat overshadowed by India’s 10-game unbeaten run at the tournament which includes a commanding six-wicket triumph over Cummins’ side earlier in the tournament.
And while India will enter the title decider as a clear favorite, Cummins believes his charges are gaining in confidence and are ready to peak in the final.
“One of the pleasing things for us is I still don’t feel like we’ve played the complete game,” Cummins suggested.
“Maybe against the Netherlands, but outside of that we probably haven’t as there’s been no huge wins and we’ve had to fight for every win and we have found a way to win and different players have stood up at different times.
“I think taking that confidence, knowing that we don’t have to be at our absolute best to challenge any team.
“We can find a way through it and all the boys draw a lot of confidence from that going to tomorrow.”
While Cummins admits he is no expert at judging how the pitch in Ahmedabad will play, the Australia captain did suggest that the final will be a high-scoring affair based purely on the fact that there have already been a handful of big totals scored at the ground during the tournament.
“I think the Pakistan game was played on the same pitch,” Cummins said.
He also expects dew to be a factor for the side that bowls under lights, with temperatures tipped to cool off as the sun sets in India’s west.
“This city and venue seems to have more dew than a lot of the other places we play,” Cummins noted.
