Cricket World Cup final pitch controversy rears its head again as Pat Cummins makes complaint ahead of Australia's clash with India

Pat Cummins has reportedly raised concerns about the state of the pitch ahead of Australia’s Cricket World Cup final clash with India.

The subject of the pitch dominated the semi-final conversation earlier this week with pundits and fans unimpressed with India after their win over New Zealand was played on a used pitch. 

And in the build up to Australia’s huge game against the hosts on Sunday, Cummins was spotted paying close attention to the pitch in Ahmedabad, where he was joined by several teammates and officials. 

According to The Age, he raised concerns with ground staff during his inspection. 

There are concerns among the Australian camp that the pitch is ‘rock hard’ in the middle, but rough at both ends, indicating that some parts of the pitch had been watered more than others.

Pat Cummins made a complaint about the pitch to officials ahead of the World Cup final

The Australia captain raised concerns about the condition of the pitch in Ahmedabad

It means that the spinners are likely to come into play for India as Australia chase their target score to win the competition. 

Cummins insisted he was not surprised by the state of the pitch as he looks to silence the hostile home crowd on Sunday.  

‘(India) have certainly played really well this World Cup,’ the Australian captain said.

‘I think we certainly didn’t, I don’t think we scored par in that first game but we’re one catch away from potentially being in front of that game.

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‘We won an ODI series here early on in the year. There’s lots of moments we can draw on where we’ve had success against a really good Indian side.’

Working in India’s favour will be their passionate fanbase packing out the biggest cricket ground in the world: Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium, which has room for 132,000 seated punters.

The crowd at the only other game India have played there during the tournament, against Pakistan, was so one-sided that Pakistan’s team director Mickey Arthur remarked it ‘didn’t seem like an ICC event, it seemed like a BCCI event’.

Australia have a better sense of the hostile conditions ahead than most, though.

Of their 15-player World Cup squad, 13 have played in the Indian Premier League and since the beginning of 2019, India have hosted Australia for six white-ball series.

‘On this scale (the crowd) is probably bigger than we would have experienced before but it’s not something totally foreign to what we’ve had before,’ Cummins said.

Australia won the toss and elected to bowl against India on Sunday

‘The crowd’s obviously going to be very one-sided but also in sport, there’s nothing more satisfying than hearing a big crowd go silent and that’s the aim for us tomorrow.

‘You’ve just got to embrace every part of it, every part of a final even when you know in the lead-up there’s going to be noise and more people and interest and you just can’t get overwhelmed.

‘You’ve got to be up for it, you’ve got to love it and just know whatever happens it’s fine but you just want to finish the day with no regrets.’