Australia skipper Pat Cummins hailed India’s star pacer Mohammed Shami and said he will be the player who will challenge the Baggy Greens in the World Cup 2023 final on Sunday at the Narendra Modi Stadium.
Shami has taken the entire tournament by storm since making his first appearance against New Zealand in Dharamshala.
He kicked off his journey with a five-wicket haul against the Kiwis and single-handedly took apart the Blackcaps batting line-up in the semi-final with a seven-wicket haul.
With 23 wickets in 5 matches, Shami is the leading wicket-taker in the entire tournament and will look to extend the lead at the summit.
Cummins sang Shami’s praise in the pre-match press conference and said, “I mean they’re all pretty well-rounded in all departments. You know the one guy that didn’t play at the start of the tournament who’s done really well is obviously Mohammed Shami, he’s a class bowler to right and left armers, so yeah, he’s going to be a big one but again, these are guys we’ve played a lot — so all our batters can draw in moments where they’ve taken on these bowlers and done well.”
While Shami has been the standout player, Cummins feels that the spinners — Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeha are not to be undermined.
“Yeah, I think again, they’re pretty well-rounded. They’ve got five guys that bowl ten overs pretty much every match. I think their spinners have done well through the middle overs, Kuldeep and Jadeja, so they’re going to be a tough proposition like they always are. But you know, they’ve won every game, so they’ve been very impressive,” Cummins added.
Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Steve Smith, Alex Carey, Josh Inglis, Sean Abbott, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitch Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, David Warner, Adam Zampa, Mitchell Starc.
India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishan Kishan, Prasidh Krishna, Suryakumar Yadav.