ODI World Cup Final: Indian cricket and the travesty of ‘home’ conditions

Analysis of India’s defeat and Australia’s victory have only begun. But there are lessons to be learnt from this World Cup. (Image: AFP)

India were undone by ‘home’ conditions at Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium in Sunday’s Cricket ODI World Cup 2023 final against Australia. A slow and dry pitch, the kind that have spun many a landslide victory against quality oppositions in the past, came to hurt Rohit Sharma’s India as Australia conquered mental gremlins, outsmarted and outplayed the home team to clinch a record sixth ODI World Cup title.

In the aftermath of their loss to India in Ahmedabad, Pakistan’s cricket team director Mickey Arthur had said that this ODI World Cup seemed to be a ‘BCCI event’. Arthur’s angst was against ICC’s inability to offer a level playing field to Pakistan in terms of fan support inside the stadium. Plans to psyche out and demoralise Pakistan, a potential threat to India’s campaign, was certainly a gameplan. The ‘Indianness’ of this World Cup cannot be overemphasised.

Regardless of India’s rampaging form in this ODI World Cup, where Virat Kohli and Mohammed Shami stood out with bat and ball, respectively, there have been murmurs of favouritism to the home team when it came to pitch preparation. It surfaced before the semifinal against New Zealand and also ahead of the final against Australia. Both teams rose above them but with contrasting end results.

Aussie Familiarity With Indian Conditions

While New Zealand fell short by 70 runs in a tall-scoring semi-final against India at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium, a tactical Australia eschewedconventional wisdom of win-toss-bat-first strategy on a tricky surface in Ahmedabad and silenced 120,000 partisan fans, not always appreciative of good performances.

Behind Pat Cummins’ decision to ask India to bat first in the final was the Aussie team management’s knowledge of Indian conditions. Particularly those who are IPL regulars have a wealth of understanding on Indian pitches. Cummins, Glenn Maxwell, Josh Hazlewood, Adam Zampa, Mitchell Marsh, David Warner and Steve Smith et al have been playing IPL for years and they know that dry surfaces that are sticky and aid turn during day time gradually eases out for batsmen under lights. The dew makes it worse for the bowling team.

This phenomenon was amply clear on Sunday. While Indian batsmen, all in top form, found stroke-making difficult, Australian batsmen Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne, whose 192-run fourth-wicket partnership finally killed the Indian challenge, found their respective sweet spots with patience and Test-like application after Australia were reeling at 47 for three in the seventh over, chasing 241 for a record-extending World Cup title.

Don’t Write Off 50-Over Format

Two things were established yet again in this ODI World Cup. First, there is still plenty of life in 50-over cricket and that Twenty20, the more commercially attractive, is not the be-all and end-all of international cricket.

The fact that the Indian ODI team had 10 Test-playing regulars and the Australians had nine only highlighted the fact that only cricketers with a mindset and skill to play long-form cricket will thrive under any condition.

It is now up to the ICC and the Test-playing nations to strike a balance between long-form and the shorter varieties to spread the virtues of the game far and wide. This World Cup also brought to light that nations like Afghanistan and the Netherlands have the potential to compete at the highest levels and only need opportunities to develop into stronger teams.

Afghanistan Serves Notice

Afghanistan, the giant-killers of ODI World Cup 2023, scored big wins against defending champions England, former World Cup winners Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and came close to stunning Australia before Maxwell played the ODI knock of the century to galvanise the morale and confidence level in the Aussie camp ahead of the knockouts.

This Afghan performance was no fluke. The resoluteness of Ibrahim Zadran, who became the first-ever Afghan batsman to score a World Cup century, is testimony to the fact that Afghan cricketers are learning the virtues of crease occupation, tactical strokeplay and gauging opposition bowlers on various surfaces.

World Cups are the ultimate celebration of the game and this can only sustain if major cricket boards like India, England, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand embrace the relatively weaker teams and construct their bilateral itineraries to spread and enrich the game globally.

Lessons For India

Analysis of India’s defeat and Australia’s victory have only begun. But there are lessons to be learnt from this World Cup. The paying public is a major stakeholder in the success system of any sport. Access to tickets and facilities are non-negotiable elements. Both BCCI and ICC made the headlines for the wrong reasons during this World Cup.

Although some bizarre accusations were made on Indians using different balls that aided swing, India clearly established their supremacy in the sport once again. Kohli’s consistency with the bat, Shami, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj’s skills with the new ball and the emergence of Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul as dependable top and middle-order batsmen augur well for the future.

Yes, India lost the final to a better Australian side, but that’s the nature of competition. While batting and bowling remain key ingredients in a team’s game plan, no one demonstrated the importance of fielding like the Australians did. The bloody elbows, the bruised waist and the desperation to save runs were all seen in the final and the Aussies saved no less than 30 runs in a match where the margin for error was minimum.

Sport and politics always go hand in hand and this was keenly felt during this ODI World Cup. When in India, cricket is the perfect vehicle to deliver a political message and Afghan players rode it to show solidarity with their brothers wanting to return to their country from Pakistani refugee camps. Even Palestine made its presence felt on the final day with an intruder, reportedly an Aussie, breaching the security cordon. But as the day wore on the Aussies head-butted India out of the final game with absolute carefree abandon. After a horror start to the tournament, Australia finished deserving winners

Soumitra Bose is a senior journalist and a research scholar. Views are personal, and do not represent the stance of this publication.