Australian captain Pat Cummins admitted that the team’s primary focus was to win the much-anticipated ICC World Test Championship (WTC) 2023 final match against India. Pat Cummins stated that they were hit after missing the opportunity to be part of the inaugural edition final two years ago.
The Pat Cummins-led team will take on India in the upcoming WTC final at the Kennington Oval in London beginning on June 7. Following the WTC final, the Australia team will take on England in a five-match Ashes 2023 series, with the first Test beginning at Edgbaston in Birmingham on June 16.
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Pat Cummins admitted that people have forgotten that they will take part in the WTC final ahead of the Ashes series in England.
“We’ve got India in the World Test Championship final first, which I think a lot of people forgot,” Cummins told reporters ahead of the match at the Oval.
Australia finished at the top of the team standings for the 2021–2023 WTC cycle. The Aussies won 11 Tests out of 19 matches during the ongoing WTC cycle. The team lost only one series during this period, when they lost to India in the Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) series earlier this year.
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It Felt Like A Big Missed Opportunity – Pat Cummins
Pat Cummins hoped that the team could win the match against India in a one-off Test to secure the ICC title in the longer format of the game.
“I think being new, it probably didn’t hit us until the game was actually played, and you saw over there [in England] New Zealand did well and you wish you were there,” Cummins said, as quoted by The Age.
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“It feels like the second time around it’s got a little bit more on it. It felt like a big missed opportunity that first one. So it certainly gives a bit more context to every series now, something big to play for,” he added.
Gives Them A Bit More Global Context – Pat Cummins
The 29-year-old was impressed with the WTC final concept and said that it provides relevance to the bilateral Test series.
“The big series, say Ashes or India series where you play four or five Test matches, are obviously big battles, whereas the more common series where you play two or three in a series, it [the World Test Championship] gives them a bit more global context and something a bit extra to play for,” he concluded.
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