Fourteen out of the 15 India gamers who characteristic within the World Test Championship (WTC) closing had been lively within the IPL, which coursed by means of April and May at excessive depth. Only two of the Australians - David Warner and Cameron Green - featured within the IPL, whereas Michael Neser, Steven Smith, Marcus Harris and Marnus Labuschagne have been taking part in county cricket.

Most members of the Australia squad for the WTC closing have not performed a lot aggressive cricket because the four-match Test sequence in India that resulted in early March. Neither groups has performed any Test cricket since that sequence. Which brings us to the query: when it comes to preparation, who between India and Australia are higher ready for the ultimate which begins at The Oval on Wednesday?

"Yeah, they [breaks] are rare to come by," Cummins prefaced his reply on the significance of getting a break when gamers' workloads have been immense throughout the three codecs, together with franchise-based tournaments.

"So, yeah, we try and take a break when we can. I've always said that we have got six Test matches in the next two months, I'd much prefer to be slightly underdone than overdone. That's from a bowler's point of view. I always feel like it doesn't take too much to kind of get ready. And then I want to make sure I'm fresh physically for the matches."

"We have had some really good training at Beckenham the last week," he stated. "Obviously back home, we did a lot of training as well. So everyone's come in, we've trained really hard, everyone's rejuvenated, refreshed and pretty keen."

Minutes earlier, on the similar occasion, Ponting had stated he wasn't certain which crew was higher ready, although he gave Australia a "slight" edge due to the extra Australia-like situations at The Oval, the place the bounce is nice, the sq. boundaries are lengthy, and the forecast is for many heat climate.

"Everyone's come in, we've trained really hard, everyone's rejuvenated, refreshed and pretty keen"•ICC via Getty Images

"As far as preparation is concerned, some of the Australians have done nothing - they haven't been playing any cricket at all," Ponting stated. "At least all the Indian guys have been playing very competitive cricket in the IPL. So coming in fresh without any cricket, is that better? Or is it coming in maybe slightly jaded, slightly tired on the back of an IPL, but having played a lot of cricket leading in? So there's lots of factors that could show up through the course of this week."

Rohit Sharma: 'Talk to your self and be mentally prepared'

"If you're going to play, this is something that you have to come up with mentally. You got to be adaptable, adjust whatever little tweak you need to do in your technique," he stated. "But more than that, I think it's just talking to yourself and getting mentally ready. Lot of the other guys in the squad haven't done that because we've got a lot of new faces in the squad as well.

"For me, it is simply been actually speaking to myself, getting mentally prepared, as a result of that's one thing that a variety of us have been doing for a few years."

Rohit Sharma and Pat Cummins alongside Ian Bell at an event ahead of the WTC final•ICC via Getty Images

If there is one thing he has learned as a batter in England, it's that "you're by no means in".

"England, basically, is fairly difficult situations for the batters, however so long as you are ready to have a very good grind, , you possibly can have some success as a batter," he said. "One factor I realised batting [in 2021] was you're by no means in often because the climate retains altering loads. So you bought to maintain concentrating for longer intervals of time and that's the problem of this format. You know, you will get that message or you may get that instinct when is your time to take the bowler on and that's when you ought to be prepared for it and extra importantly, you might want to be there."

And if you maintain that focus, Rohit said it can be easy to make runs at The Oval. "As we all know that that is in all probability top-of-the-line batting wickets as properly," he said. "You get worth to your photographs, the sq. boundaries are fairly fast. So it is nearly giving your self the most effective probability of getting success, which is to pay attention for longer intervals of time."

Nagraj Gollapudi is news editor at ESPNcricinfo