Australia hailed for ‘momentous’ World Test C’ship cricket title but told, now win the Ashes
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Team Australia after their victory at the ICC World Test Championship cricket final match against India at The Oval, in London.
PHOTO: AFP
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Sydney – Australia’s World Test Championship (WTC) triumph was hailed on Monday as “momentous” but pundits have warned it will quickly be forgotten if they do not win cricket’s Ashes.
Pat Cummins’ side crushed India by 209 runs in the final at The Oval in London in a show of strength ahead of the Ashes against arch-rivals England starting on Friday.
The Sydney Daily Telegraph said Australia “deserve praise” for routing Rohit Sharma’s team.
But the newspaper also warned: “Deep down they know that the main prize is still to be won.”
Australian selectors now face a major decision on whether to stick with seamer Scott Boland for the first Test at Edgbaston or bring back pace spearhead Josh Hazlewood, who is returning from injury.
After Boland’s second-innings exploits at The Oval, including the prize scalp of Virat Kohli on Sunday on his way to figures of 3-46 in 16 overs, local media agreed it would be almost impossible to drop him.
Australia’s victory was the culmination of a two-year programme of Tests that saw them win 12 out of 20 matches, with five draws and three defeats.
Along the way, there had been controversies, with former skipper Tim Paine stepping down over a sexting scandal in late 2021 and Justin Langer quitting as coach in acrimonious circumstances several months later.
With the more reserved Andrew McDonald now in charge and Cummins growing into his role as skipper, national broadcaster ABC said Australia had morphed into “a more balanced, rounded and complete side”.
The Sydney Morning Herald praised the pair for “creating an environment in which individuals could find their best paths to culminate in team success”.
The mood was decidedly more morose in New Delhi, as the defeat underlined the cricket-mad country’s failure in major tournaments and has thrown the future of their front-line batters into doubt.
“Super stars flop yet again,” read a headline in Monday’s Times of India newspaper, which mourned the team’s “sustained failures on the big occasion”.
The Indian Express, meanwhile, recalled the team’s defeat by New Zealand in the 2021 WTC final and lamented how they were “sleepwalking into the same old problems”.
India, who lost in the semi-finals of the 2019 ODI World Cup and the 2022 T20 World Cup, have lost the “knack” for winning “a knockout match of significance”, it added.
Former captain Sunil Gavaskar lashed out at the “ridiculous” shot selections by the front-line batters, including Kohli, who fell for 49 on Sunday chasing a wide ball.
Gavaskar told Star Sports: “To win the match, you needed a long innings, a century-plus innings but how are you going to do that if you play a shot so far outside the off-stump?” AFP, REUTERS
