Australia captain Pat Cummins confirmed that Sunday’s World Cup final will be played on a ‘used surface’.
As reported by Sportstar earlier, the black soil pitch that was used for India’s game against Pakistan last month will be persisted with, and addressing the media on the eve of the marquee clash, Cummins referred to it as a ‘pretty good wicket’.
“I am not a great pitch reader, but it looked pretty firm. They have only just watered it, so yeah, (we will) give it another 24 hours and have a look. But it looks like a pretty good wicket,” Cummins said. “Yes (It has been used before). I think Pakistan played there…”
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The previous four games — except for the one between India and Pakistan — at the Narendra Modi Stadium have seen teams breaching the 240-run mark, and Cummins is bracing himself for a high-scoring outing. “It’s hard to know. I think it’s been a bit more high scoring here throughout the tournament. Yeah, it’s been a pretty good wicket, so yeah, it’s hard to say (how it will play out),” Cummins said.
Over the last few days, the pitch has been the talking point after reports claimed that India’s semifinal fixture in Mumbai was switched to a used pitch, without keeping ICC’s independent pitch consultant Andy Atkinson in the loop.
Although the ICC later sent a clarification that there is no rule against playing knock-out games on used pitches and Atkinson was informed about the development in advance, the debates continued.
Atkinson, however, was back in Ahmedabad on Saturday morning and had a look at the surface, along with BCCI and GCA curators Taposh Chatterjee and Jayesh Patel. As heavy rollers were being used, Atkinson had a lengthy discussion with his team and the Indian curators.
