Ravi Ashwin reveals how Australians were 'well prepared' for CWC 2023 final against India

George Bailey explained the reason why Australia chose to bowl first to Indian bowler Ravi Ashwin.

Indian fans are finding it hard to digest the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 loss. Team India played magnificently in their campaign and remained unbeaten till the semi-finals. Australia proved a little bit too much for them in the finals and they defeated India by four wickets at Narendra Modi Cricket Stadium in Ahmedabad to win their 6th 50-overs World Cup title. Australians pulled themselves up for the big occasion and added one more ICC title to their cabinet. 

Indian spin all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin was included in India’s ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 team in the last moment and played just one game in the tournament. Ashwin has now revealed how a chat with Australian chief selector George Bailey left him ‘fuming’ over how well-prepared Aussies were for the big occasion.

Ravi Ashwin’s revealed mid-inning chat with George Bailey

Ravichandran Ashwin on his YouTube channel revealed that chat with Australian chief selector George Bailey who explained to him why the team decided to bowl and not bat in a big final game. Bailey’s answer left Ashwin completely bamboozled. Ashwin said, “Australia totally deceived me personally, I was checking whether the pitch was disintegrating at mid-innings and I met George Bailey.” 

“I asked him why didn’t you guys bat first like you always do – he answered back, ‘We have played IPL & Bilateral series here a lot – red soil disintegrates but not black soil & it gets better under lights – no impact on the dew on red soil but black soil has good turn in the afternoon & then it will be a concrete in night.’ I was flabbergasted after that,” Australians contained Indian batters nicely, and with just 16 boundaries in the whole innings, India posted 240 runs on the board. 

Australian opening batter Travis Head played a splendid knock of 137 runs in 120 balls. Travis Head himself scored 19 boundaries alone in the innings which were 3 more than the entire Indian innings on that day. Australia chased down the total easily and left Indian fans with plenty of disappointment. Ravichandran Ashwin played just one game in the tournament. He played in the opening game against Australia at Chepauk Stadium in Chennai. 

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