Matthew Hayden says “it’s mindset thing” on India’s ICC title drought; wants them to play fearless cricket in WTC final 

Hayden also talked about Rishabh Pant's absence and who should replace him in India XI.

Former Australia opener Matthew Hayden said that since skill was never a problem, India's title drought in ICC competitions over the past ten years has to do with the players' mindset, and they must "forget about the outcome" going into the World Test Championship final (WTC 2023 final) against Australia.

India's last ICC title came under the leadership of MS Dhoni back in 2013 and since then the team has fallen short in high-pressure knock-out games including the 2016 T20 World Cup semi-final against West Indies, the 2017 Champions Trophy final against Pakistan, 2019 ODI World Cup semi-final and more recently the T20 World Cup semi-final against England last year.

Even in the inaugural WTC final two years ago, India finished runners-up to New Zealand.

"It's certainly not a question of skill. So, it has to be a question of just the opportunity and the mindset going in. I mean, cricket is life here, it is the DNA of sport and has no other competitors. In India it's very insular and there's a lot of pressure. So, that would be my advice to Indian cricket to forget the outcomes, but buy into the process,” Hayden told PTI in an interview.

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Hayden also said that he believed that neither side had any advantage as India is coming off the IPL 2023 and had the match being played at Lord’s, it would’ve been advantageous Australia.

"The Test championship puts context to Test cricket relevance. And you've got two of the greatest nations in cricket, head to head in India and Australia. Being at The Oval, it's a good opportunity for it to be a venue that doesn't necessarily favor one particular side or the other. It's by tradition England's bounciest, more even surfaces. It doesn't favor the spinners, doesn't favour the seamers so it's quite a neutral venue. It's nice to see them playing in that venue in particular, had it been at the Lord's, Australia would have had a huge advantage there," he said.

Hayden then touched upon Rishabh Pant missing this important clash as he recovers from his injuries sustained in the car accident he was involved in December 2022.

"One of the big losses to Indian cricket right now is Rishabh Pant. If I was an Indian selector, I would certainly go with the more dynamic wicketkeeper batter Ishan Kishan, he also adds that bit of swagger to the batting lineup and in the fielding unit as well,” Hayden added.

He also urged India to play both Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin as the Oval pitch tends to help spinners as the game progresses.

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Lastly, he praise Shubman Gill as the next big thing for India and praised him for his backfoot play.

"You will see a lot of Shubman Gill for the next 15 years. The foundations behind a good Test cricketer are pretty simple. And Shubman, and KL Rahul before him, fundamentally have fantastic games. So, he'll be a superstar of any cricket format for a very long time.

One of the biggest advantages that Shubman has and he showed this when he was touring Australia is he's very good off the backfoot as well. So the square of wicket play is excellent. And that'll stand him in good stead even against the best Test sides in the world," Hayden signed off.

(PTI inputs)