Rohit, Cummins weigh in on chasing in England

"Fast, flat wickets," as Ben Stokes wants them for the Ashes, begs the question: might chasing be the wiser thing to do this summer?

The WTC final witnessed the best conditions for batting on the fourth afternoon and it took a fair number of false shots from India to really go astray in a tall chase of 444 at The Oval. Otherwise, there were few demons in the pitch.

Both Rohit Sharma and Pat Cummins wanted to bowl first, which initially seemed dictated by the green-tinged pitch in front and the dark overhead conditions above, but both captains admitted after the game that they had batting last at the back of their minds too. For context, six out of the last nine Tests in England have finished in successful run-chases. Of course there was the Jonny Bairstow factor last summer but truer pitches have incidentally returned to Test cricket in England in this era of "Bazball".

Rohit, who also swears by positive brand of batting irrespective of the format, said that one of the reasons India wanted to bat first was because they expected the pitch to get better as the match progressed.

"... One of the reasons for us to consider batting last was because we thought the wicket will not change too much. In fact, it will get better and better," Rohit said after India's 209-run loss to Australia in the WTC final. "But, yeah, obviously a lot of the things that we spoke of - how we want to bowl, how we want to bat, we didn't actually do that. That's probably the reason we were very much behind in the game all four days."

Cummins, on the other hand, said that the "stigma" around bowling first and not bowling out the opposition is receding as run-chases become more commonplace in this format.

"I think the question you always ask yourself is, is it going to be easier to bat first innings or fourth innings? That's mainly the decision," Cummins said. "I think both teams thought there's probably more of a chance to get 10 wickets on that first day than fourth innings. How it played out would have changed it? Honestly, I don't know. That's the main question you keep asking yourself. There are overheads in your conditions. There's a bit in it at day one and you feel like you're going to take 10 wickets. You just go for it. I think the stigma around bowling first and not bowling them out has gone a bit as opposed to in the past.

"This one (toss) was a little bit trickier because there hasn't been a Test match played in June. The wickets have always been a bit... a couple of months further into the summer."

Even while chasing 444, India looked comfortable at one point in time before a false shot from Virat Kohli triggered a collapse. Were Australia worried? "I wouldn't say worried," Cummins said. "We had four 430 odd on the board declared. We felt like that was enough. I think the new ball period was always going to be the one you had to watch out for. The rock hard ball can ping around the field a little bit. I think taking constant wickets always felt like we were in control. We saw this morning and still felt like the wicket had a little bit in us for us quick bowlers."

When India had visited England for the rescheduled Test match last year in Birmingham, Ben Stokes won the toss and said he "wanted to chase", not necessarily a phrase you hear too often in Test cricket, if at all. England, of course, went on to pull off a successful fourth-innings chase and in doing so, set forth a template that could continue well into this summer too. It sets up the scene nicely for the Ashes over the next few weeks.