The World Test Championship (WTC) final between Australia and South Africa is set to commence from June 11 and will be played at Lord's in London. Both the teams were dominant throughout the 2023-25 cycle and finished in the top two on the WTC points table in order to make it to penultimate match of the coveted ICC tournament.
Australia had knocked India out of WTC final contention
Earlier, Australia had crushed India's hopes of making it to their third consecutive WTC final by defeating them 3-1 in the five-match Border-Gavaskar series 2024/25. After the Men in Blue registered a victory in the first Test, the Baggy Greens came back stronger than ever and won three out of the next four matches.
Ahead of the much-awaited final against South Africa, Australia captain Pat Cummins expressed his excitement about playing an ICC final against a team other than India.
"In some ways you expect India to be around. England have been quite strong at home and New Zealand always seem to get to finals. But the same case could be made for South Africa in ICC events," Cummins told the Guardian.
"We just don't see a lot of them in Test cricket but it's nice and different to an Australia-India final," he added.
Cummins also praised South Africa for making it to the final and even namedropped left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj while speaking about their impressive bowling attack that contributed a lot in taking the Proteas to their first-ever WTC final.
"It's hard to say because there are so many unknowns. We haven't played them much but you've got to be really well balanced to make the final," Cummins stated.
"Their bowling has always stood out and it's no different now. Keshav Maharaj is a really solid spinner and they've always got plenty of quick bowlers who pose a challenge," he added.
Meanwhile, South Africa had finished as the table-toppers in the WTC 2023-25 standings with a win percentage of 69.44 while Australia had finished second with a win percentage of 67.54. In the final, the Baggy Greens will have a chance to become the first-ever team to win the WTC twice, while on the other hand, the Proteas will be looking to finally end their 27-year drought of winning a major international trophy by emerging victorious in the highly-important clash.