‘The Oval Doesn’t Necessarily Favour One Particular Team’, Says Matthew Hayden Ahead of WTC 2023 Final

Australian batting great Matthew Hayden opined that the World Test Championship 2023 Final being held at the Oval instead of the Lords, made the encounter between two of the best cricketing nations in the world, India and Australia, a rather balanced affair.

“The Test championship puts context to Test cricket relevance. And you’ve got two of the greatest nations in cricket, head to head in India and Australia. Being at The Oval, it’s a good opportunity for it to be a venue which doesn’t necessarily favour one particular side or the other,” the maverick left-hander said.

“It’s by tradition England’s bounciest, more even surfaces. It doesn’t favour the spinners, doesn’t really favour the seamers so it’s quite a neutral venue. It’s nice to see them playing in that venue in particular, had it been at the Lord’s, Australia would have had a huge advantage there,” he added.

Hyden also opined that India’s failures at ICC events was due to a case of mentality rather than talent, which the nation seems to possess in abundance.

“It’s certainly not a question of skill. So, it has to be a question of just the opportunity and the mindset going in. I mean, cricket is life here, it is the DNA of sport and has no other competitors,” Hayden opened up.

“In Australia, I could walk down the street and largely be unrecognised, especially with this terrible beard and hat on. But it’s also got great competitive sports besides cricket. Rugby, football, our watersports, surfing, outdoor sports, here in India it’s very insular and there’s a lot of pressure,” he explained.

“It’s the same with Pakistan cricket as well. There is one sport and it is cricket so it’s a mindset thing.”

“Being cautious about looking for the scoreboard and looking for the titles and just playing and being a part of the process, something when you look at franchise setups, Gujarat Titans have done really well this year and CSK have done very well. Mumbai Indians as well believe in a certain process.

“So, that would be my advice to Indian cricket to forget the outcomes, but buy into the process,” said the big-hitting opener.

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Hayden also shared his thoughts on both sides not having played a preparatory Test ahead of the summit clash, but added that it wasn’t necessarily a detrimental thing that the teams will compete in the longest format of the game right after an action-packed month of T20 league cricket.

“Don’t pay too much mind to the preparation of either nation. I don’t sense that there’s a great disadvantage in playing IPL cricket as opposed to playing county cricket,” he said.

“The level is so extreme in high performance at the IPL level. Take someone like Cameron Green for example. He’s had a bumper of a season for Mumbai Indians.”

“It’s a no-brainer whether he is playing here or whether he’s actually playing in county cricket or wherever. He’s exposed to the highest level of sport and if anything, I think there may be a slight advantage for the guys that have been playing that higher level (IPL).

“The mix of playing high-performance cricket at IPL now going to match specific venue training, is excellent preparation,” Hayden asserted.

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Hayden said that the unavailability of the free-hitting Rishabh Pant was a big miss for India and backed Ishan Kishan to take the place of the wicketkeeper-batsman instead of KS Bharath.

“One of the big losses to Indian cricket right now is Rishabh Pant. If I was an Indian selector, I certainly go with the more dynamic wicketkeeper batter Ishan Kishan, he also adds that bit of swagger to the batting lineup and in the fielding unit as well.”

Hayden touched upon the team compositions ahead of the championship clash which is slated to get underway on the 7th of June.

“The spinners could play a role at The Oval as the game progresses and that is why Hayden said India must play both Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.

“What works for India is two spinners. It doesn’t work for Australia, apart from the outrageous turners that we saw in India during the Border-Gavaskar trophy.

“I know the Australian combination will always want to have three quicks. Obviously, Nathan Lyon is our spinner and Cameron Green can play as an all-rounder. I mean, that’s, that’s how important Cameron Green is. That’s a powerful and important role that he plays as an all-rounder. So it’s great to have him in form,” he said.

The 51-year-old heaped immense praise on IPL 2023 Orange Cap winner Shubman Gill and said that the fans will be treated to many more masterful innings in the upcoming future.

“You will see a lot of Shubman Gill for the next 15 years. The foundations behind a good Test cricketer are pretty simple. And Shubman, and KL Rahul before him, fundamentally have fantastic games. So, he’ll be a superstar of any cricket format for a very long time,” Hayden said.

“One of the biggest advantages that Shubman has and he showed this when he was touring Australia is he’s very good off the backfoot as well.

“So square of wicket play is excellent. And that’ll stand him in good stead even against the best Test sides in the world,” Hayden concluded.