WTC final takes centre stage amid T20 boom

The World Test Championship final between Australia and India at the Oval starts Wednesday against a backdrop of fears for the long format given the growth of Twenty20 franchise leagues.

Not that there's anything new about cricket-lovers worrying about the future of their sport.

One current concern is that the riches on offer to leading players from T20 tournament such as the Indian Premier League, and the vastly shorter time it takes to earn the money than by playing five-day Test cricket, makes the traditional format of the game much less attractive to leading modern-day players.

The International Cricket Council's response was to devise the WTC, a two-year cycle of games culminating in a final, in order to give Test cricket greater context.

This week's match marks the culmination of the second edition, with New Zealand having defeated India in the inaugural 2021 final at Southampton.

Australia and India are two of cricket's major on and off-field powers, together with England, and the 'Big Three' play the majority of five-match Test series.

The proximity of the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston starting on June 16 has led to the WTC final being labelled a "warm-up" game for Australia.

But Australia star batter Steve Smith, whose side just missed out on the inaugural final, after losing their last home series India, is adamant it is a match his side want to win just as much as a 50-over or T20 World Cup final.

"We're all just looking forward to this (match against India)," Smith told reporters at the Oval on Monday.

And India coach Rahul Dravid said: "It's something you aspire to, to be in the top two teams so you get an opportunity to play this game."

Early season surfaces in England generally do not give spinners much help and India skipper Rohit Sharma said the Oval pitch and the overhead conditions looked as though they would assist seam bowlers.

"When we played the last Test match here at the Oval, it looked very similar to this and then as the game went on, it got better and better and slower and slower, then the reverse-swing came into play on the fifth day," Rohit said during a pre-match press conference at the Oval on Tuesday.

"We are going to consider all those factors."

Rohit, however, was tight-lipped on whether star spinner Ravichandran Ashwin would feature in the final.

The last time India played a Test at the London ground, in 2021, they left out Ashwin despite the star off-spinner's excellent record -- 474 wickets at 23.93 in 92 matches. They had instead opted for spin-bowling all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja.

Both bowlers are in India's 15-man squad for the WTC final.

"In terms of the combination, better we wait until tomorrow (Wednesday) -- that's a common answer, I think," Rohit said with a smile.