Cummins, Rohit Identify ‘Teamwork’ As Key Reason Behind Surge To World Cup Final

Pat Cummins and Rohit Sharma underlined the role played by every member in the squad as one of the key reasons behind their team's success at the 2023 ICC Men's Cricket World Cup ahead of the big final on Sunday.

India have five batters with more than 300 runs and five bowlers with more than 10 wickets in this edition of the Cricket World Cup while the corresponding number for Australia is four apiece.

Multiple players performing their roles to perfection have been the driving force behind India's unbeaten run in the tournament according to the skipper.

"Obviously, when you score hundreds, when you get five wickets, a lot of spotlight is on those kind of performances," Rohit said.

"But I feel guys like Jadeja, Kuldeep, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, all these guys, perform their role pretty well so that the guys who are taking five wickets and scoring hundreds are doing that quite easily.

"If they wouldn't have done what is expected out of them, it would have been slightly difficult for the other guys to get a hundred or take five wickets because you need to create pressure from both sides and you can bowl only 10 overs, you can't bowl 50 overs. So you need other support from the players."

The story isn't too different for Australia, where skipper Pat Cummins himself has been an unheralded hero with the bat for Australia, twice salvaging the team out of trouble - once in the company of Glenn Maxwell, where his vigilant knock was overshadowed by a spectacular double century and once again in the semi-final when he carried the team to a win under immense pressure in the run-chase.

"We've had lots of different guys that have stood up at different moments," Cummins remarked when asked about who he thinks is Australia's Player of the tournament.

"Travis Head had two Player of the Match performances. Davey Warner is right up there in the most runs. Mitchell Marsh has got two hundreds and obviously, Glenn Maxwell got a ridiculous hundred against Netherlands and then an out-of-this-world double hundred against Afghanistan.

"And Zamps [Zampa], he's almost the top wicket-taker. I think I've just about named the whole eleven there. So it's really hard to single anyone out. The good thing is anyone on their day could be a match-winner."

The Australian skipper is also eyeing a rare treble in the span of six months, having already secured the ICC World Test Championship title and retained the Ashes.

"Oh, it's insane. I think this would probably top all of them. It's just been a wild year. And fortunately, a lot of success has followed. So to be here on the world stage where you've got every ODI nation kind of competing for the title to stand there holding the trophy, I think we'd top it all."

Rohit, meanwhile, stressed on how the team prepared for the event and the hard work that went behind the scenes in the lead-up to the tournament which played a major role in India's impressive World Cup.

"You look forward to the World Cups like a couple of years in advance and you start preparing for it," Rohit said.

"You try and spot the players that can do the job for you. And that is something that we heavily focused on. We realized what kind of players we need in our conditions, who are going to win your games, who are going to put the hand up in difficult situations, difficult times.

"And then looking at where we stand at this point in time, obviously it's quite pleasing the way we've played the last ten games. Obviously, it's been very clinical, but at the same time, it's been quite dominant as well, which is very, very pleasing.

"All the efforts that we've put in for the last couple of years to get the team ready, to give clarity to each player. And it's very, very heartening to see that they come out and do the job with so much clarity and with so much authority as well.

"So that is what has, you know, given me a lot of excitement. And I'm very pleased for all the guys as well, because, you know, when you put your effort and put your thought into something and when you see you being rewarded with that, it's a nice feeling."