Cummins Urges Australia To Embrace India Crowd Challenge In World Cup Final

Australia captain Pat Cummins has urged his side to "embrace" the challenge of facing a hostile crowd when they play in-form hosts India in Sunday's World Cup final in Ahmedabad.

Pat Cummins (Image Source: Google)

'No regrets' -

"You got to be up for it, you got to love it and just know whatever happens it's fine but you just want to finish the day with no regrets," Cummins said.

And while he accepted the dimensions of Sunday's match would be different to any his side had experienced before, Cummins said: "We play over here in India a lot so the noise is not something new.

"I think on this scale it's probably bigger than we would have experienced before but it's not something totally foreign to what we've had before.

"Everyone deals with it slightly differently -- you see Davey (Warner) probably dancing and winning the crowd over, other guys just staying in their own bubble –- it should be good."

Victory on Sunday would cap a remarkable 2023 for Australia that saw them narrowly lose a Test series in India before defeating India in a World Test Championship final in England, where they also went on to retain the Ashes after a drawn series.

"It's been a huge year," said Cummins. "These are four marquee events. If you have one of those in an off-season, it's a big off-season.

"Some of the guys probably spent less than a couple of weeks in their own bed since the end of the Aussie summer," added Cummins, also the skipper of Australia's Test team.

"The guys have been awesome. They're so up for every game they play.

"To put ourselves in this position, it (winning the World Cup) would just top off an incredible year and probably a career-defining year that a lot of us will look back on in years to come and be pretty proud of."