Former India player Sunil Gavaskar has said that Australia’s brilliant record in knockout games has made them favourites ahead of New Zealand in the T20 World Cup 2021 final. However, both the teams have met 18 times in ICC tournaments, where Australia has won 12 times. They have also won 20 of their 31 ICC knockout games as well which also included five Cricket World Cup and two Champions Trophy finals.
Sunil Gavaskar told Sports Today: “It definitely does (whether the superior record gives a psychological advantage). When you have won more often than you have lost, you just enter the field feeling that come what may, you will be able to turn it around. The Australians, I think they are on a roll, they have got the momentum. In the knockouts, it’s not against New Zealand but against most teams that they have an unbelievable record. They will fancy their chances of claiming this ICC T20 cup for the first time.”
Sunil Gavaskar further added that after wicketkeeper-batsman Devon Conway’s injury will work as a positive for Australia. Notably, both the teams have finished second in the group stage but eventually beat their opponents in the semi-final by five wickets and an over to spare respectively as well.
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He added: “If Devon Conway was fit, maybe I would have said 50-50. But with Devon Conway not there, a new person coming in who hasn’t played after the first match, Tim Seifert, it’s not going to be easy for New Zealand. And like I said, Australia’s record in knockouts is awesome.”
Meanwhile, for Australia, it has been David Warner’s current form that is working for them as well as he is leading from the front, scoring 236 runs from six innings which came at 47.20. And, Sunil Gavaskar said that the pressure of a big final won’t affect his aggressive approach too and he will play his natural game.
“That’s the way he knows to play. He isn’t much about defending the ball in any form of the game. Even in Test cricket, he looks to take the attack to the opposition and more often than not he has succeeded. That’s why he has been such a wonderful player for Australia in all three formats of the game. I don’t think he’s going to change his approach. He might get out and the Australians will allow him that. They know that if he gets going he’s going to take the game away. So they’ll allow him to play the game he knows best and that is to go after the bowling straightaway,” Gavaskar expressed.
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Meanwhile, Conway’s injury has not only ruled him out of the final but also from the T20I series against India later this month. He is in the race against time to be first before the two-match Test series as well.
“It will make a huge impact because Devon Conway is a quality player. We have seen him at the Test level. He made a double hundred on his Test debut. He’s been in very good form these last 12 months. As a batsman, he has scored 1000 runs. He is a wicketkeeper, he is a left-hander. We saw the combination of Daryl Mitchell and Conway, how they took the game away from England. Conway not being around is going to be huge. He is a man in form and somebody who brings the left hand into the equation,” Sunil Gavaskar concluded.
